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Thuringia Interior Minister Georg Maier was elected Chairman of the Thuringia SPD on Saturday. His election had initially been postponed: the 53-year-old initially did not appear at the party conference in Bad Blankenburg for personal reasons. As outgoing state president Wolfgang Tiefensee explained to delegates, Maier was in the delivery room on Saturday morning, where his partner gave birth to a daughter. The girl’s name is Martha and she is their first child together. Maier’s partner has no other children; Maier, on the other hand, is already the father of three other children. He is currently divorcing the mother of his older children.
82.7 percent of delegates vote for Maier
Georg Maier was the only candidate in the elections for the new state president of the SPD. 82.7 percent of the 203 voting delegates gave Maier their vote on Saturday. Maier will follow Wolfgang Tiefensee, who announced his retirement in May this year. Tiefensee announced in his farewell speech on Saturday that he would continue to be there for the party from the second row.
Georg Maier was also nominated by acclamation as the leading candidate for next year’s state elections. Therefore, Maier is also leading his party into the state election campaign in 2021. The SPD is the first party in Thuringia to officially elect a leading candidate for next year’s elections.
Vice-election: all holders confirmed
In addition to the president, SPD deputies were also elected in Bad Blankenburg on Saturday. The four incumbents Sven Schrade, Diana Lehmann, Cornelia Klisch and Antje Hochwind-Schneider were confirmed as SPD vice presidents. Initially, five candidates stood for election for the four positions. The mayor of Erfurt, Andreas Bausewein, had surprisingly withdrawn his candidacy. He acted on the advice of Georg Maier, Bausewein said. This did not lead to the dreaded battle between the cliche and Bausewein.
