Hamburg SPD Member of Parliament - Niels Annen is no longer running for the Bundestag
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and long-standing SPD representative Niels Annen, will not run in the next Bundestag election. In a letter to the SPD chairperson of Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, Milan Pein, Annen wrote on Sunday: "I am writing to you today because I have decided not to run for the German Bundestag in 2025." It is important to inform you about this now, so that there is enough time to find a successor, the letter reads, which was obtained by the German Press Agency. Several media had previously reported on this.
He will greatly miss his work as a Bundestag member, but perhaps this is exactly the right time for such a decision. "I am looking forward to bringing my qualifications in a different way again," Annen wrote without going into specifics. The native of Hamburg has been an uninterrupted member of the German Bundestag since 2013. From 2018 to 2021, he was a State Minister in the Foreign Office, before he switched to being a Parliamentary State Secretary to Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze (SPD).
Niels Annen sat in the Bundestag in 2005
The former Juso chairman (2001-2004) also sat in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009 - and would have liked to continue, but surprisingly failed in the candidate selection in 2008. The Hamburg Juso chief Danial Ilkhanipour defeated Annen by a narrow margin. His candidacy was highly controversial. Critics accused Ilkhanipour of announcing his candidacy only after he had installed sufficient party friends as delegates for the constituency conference. Due to the dispute, the then SPD district chairman Jan Pörksen had to withdraw on election day. Ilkhanipour ultimately failed in the Bundestag election.
"The dispute over my re-nomination in 2008 hurt me, and the confrontation was ultimately not good for anyone," Annen now wrote to Pein. But it was a great experience to get a second chance four years later. "That's not self-evident in politics."
- The news of Niels Annen's decision not to run in the 2025 Bundestag election made headlines in the German press, with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the SPD being heavily featured in the top news.
- Despite his decision, Annen, a long-standing SPD representative, expressed that he would miss his work in the Bundestag, having been a member since 2013, following a stint in the Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021.
- The SPD's Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Annen, served in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009 but surprisingly failed in the candidate selection that year, losing to Danial Ilkhanipour.
- Annen recalled the controversy surrounding his re-nomination in 2008, which included accusations from critics that Ilkhanipour announced his candidacy only after installing sufficient party friends as delegates for the constituency conference, ultimately leading to Pörksen's withdrawal on election day.
- Reminiscing on his political journey, Annen expressed gratitude for the opportunity to return to the Bundestag four years later and noted that a second chance is not self-evident in politics.
