Germany will have its first female defense minister, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday as she announced the members of her conservative party who would take cabinet posts in her grand coalition government, dpa reported. Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen is to take over the Defence Ministry from Thomas de Maiziere, also of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He is to become interior minister, a post he held from 2009 to 2011, Merkel said. The CDU will hold three other cabinet posts as Merkel begins her third term as chancellor: Wolfgang Schaeuble will remain finance minister, Johanna Wanka will keep her job as education and research minister and Hermann Groehe will become health minister. The cabinet line-up was announced after two months of coalition talks between the CDU and its Bavarian-based associate party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) following September's parliamentary elections. The centre-left SPD was the last of the three parties to approve the coalition deal, doing so Saturday. It announced its six ministers earlier Sunday. SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel is to have a joint portfolio of economics and energy as Germany prepares to abandon nuclear energy. Former foreign minister and SPD parliamentary leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier would reclaim the top diplomatic job, which he held from 2005 to 2009. The other SPD cabinet members will be: Andrea Nahles (labour), Barbara Hendricks (environment), Manuela Schwesig (family affairs) and Heiko Maas (justice and consumer affairs). The CSU's Alexander Dobrindt becomes minister for transportation and digital infrastructure; Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich switches portfolios and moves to the agriculture ministry while Gerd Mueller becomes development minister. The CDU, CSU and SPD plan to sign their 185-page coalition agreement Monday to establish the third grand coalition in Germany's history. Another was led by Merkel during her first term from 2005 to 2009. Merkel is then to be elected chancellor for the third time Tuesday, after which her ministers are to be sworn in.
