Tarek Al-Wazir

Tarek Al-Wazir
Deputy Minister-President of Hesse
Incumbent
Assumed office
18 January 2014
Prime Minister Volker Bouffier
Preceded by Jörg-Uwe Hahn
Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development
Incumbent
Assumed office
18 January 2014
Prime Minister Volker Bouffier
Preceded by Florian Rentsch
Personal details
Born January 3, 1971
Offenbach am Main, Hesse,  West Germany
Nationality German
Political party Alliance '90/The Greens

Tarek Mohammed Al-Wazir (Arabic: طارق الوزير‎; born January 3, 1971) is a politician in the German Green Party. Since January 2014 he has been Deputy of the Hessian Minister-President Volker Bouffier and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development. He is a member of the Landtag of Hesse and was co-chairman of the Hessian Green Party.

Personal life

Al-Wazir was born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, the son of an upper-class Yemeni father and a German mother. He holds dual citizenship with Yemen and Germany. His parents divorced while he was a child, and he spent several years of his youth in the Yemeni capital (Sana'a) with his father, an experience he later described as very influential in his personal development.[1]

After his Abitur in 1991, he studied political science in Frankfurt, where he earned a diplom. He is married to a Yemeni woman, with whom he has two sons.[2]

Political career

Al-Wazir joined the German Green Party in 1989, and has been a member ever since. From 1992 to 1994 he was chairman of the party's youth organisation (Green Youth) in Hesse. He has been a member of the Landtag since 1995 and is co-chairman of the Hessian Green Party (with Kordula Schulz-Asche).

He was the leader of the Greens during the Hesse state election of 2008, and as such was the Green candidate for the position of minister-president of Hesse. His party gained 7.5% of the votes. In the aftermath of the election, he pushed hard for a "red-green-red" coalition consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the far-left Die Linke party. This would have succeeded if not for an internal revolt by SPD members, forcing a new election in January 2009. In the 2009 elections, he again stood as the Green candidate for minister-president. This time his party, benefitting from popular anger at the SPD, increased its share to 13.7% of the vote, but the Greens remained out of government.

On 18 January 2014, after the 2013 elections, Al-Wazir became Deputy of the Hessia Minister-President Volker Bouffier and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development in a Black-Green coalition.

External links

  1. ↑ Tarek, nicht Fritz, taz vom 27. Oktober 2008
  2. ↑ "Grünen-Chef Tarek Al-Wazir gilt als scharfzüngiger Redner", 12. January 2008
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