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Report nowThe Greens made a magnificent comeback in the Baden-Württemberg election campaign. This was not least due to the top candidate Cem Özdemir, the self-proclaimed "Anatolian Swabian". Who is this man?
Cem Özdemir made the Green Party the winner of the Baden-Württemberg state elections. According to the provisional final results, Özdemir's party is ahead of the CDU, which had long been confident of victory.
It is highly likely that he has secured the party at least a share of power in Stuttgart - if not the post of Minister President. The Greens are likely to be part of the next state government, with coalition options other than a CDU/Greens collaboration being rather unlikely according to forecasts.
The jubilation is correspondingly great when Özdemir steps in front of his supporters around half an hour after the polls close. Shouts of "Cem, Cem, Cem" echo through the room, scarves with the campaign slogan "2Ö26" are waved. "What a hammer," shouts the outgoing state transport minister and party left-winger Winfried Hermann into the microphone. However, because the distance to the CDU is not great, there are also warnings against too much Euophoria. "The evening is still a long one," says Culture Minister Theresa Schopper.
How did Özdemir significantly reduce the initially massive gap to the CDU? And who is the man who could continue to play an important role for the Greens in the south-west after the election?
Prominent, pragmatic and "close to the people", as they say in the south-west: this is how the Greens presented their front man during the election campaign. The dark green posters only advertised Özdemir ("He can do it"); you needed a magnifying glass to read the name of his party. Joint appearances and posters with Minister President Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) were intended to position him as the logical heir to the popular father of the state and the appearances with the ex-Green, Tübingen's mayor Boris Palmer, also sent out a message: maximum dissociation from the Green Party, something that his predecessor Kretschmann had already done successfully.
Both belong to the Realo wing of the party and are as conservative and pragmatic as possible: whether it's on the combustion engine phase-out or migration issues, they have repeatedly come into conflict with the federal party.
During the election campaign, Özdemir tried to present himself as the natural successor to Green Minister President Winfried Kretschmann.
Image: dpa (Archivbild)
Before the election campaign for the office of Minister President, the self-proclaimed "Anatolian Swabian" Özdemir had little to do with national politics. He has been a member of the Green Party since 1981 and was its national chairman from 2008 to 2018. In 1994, he was elected to the Bundestag for the first time - as the first member of parliament with Turkish roots.
His rapid rise was followed by a fall: when it became known that he had used bonus miles earned on business for private purposes and had also taken out a cheap personal loan from a PR consultant, Özdemir resigned and gave up his seat. This was followed by a political sabbatical in the USA before he worked his way back into the Bundestag via the European Parliament from 2004. He returned to the Berlin plenary chamber in 2013 and won the direct mandate in the Stuttgart I constituency in 2021 with 40% of the first votes.
In Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition cabinet, he unexpectedly became Minister of Agriculture. As such, he faced a storm of protest from farmers when the federal government wanted to abolish subsidies for agricultural diesel. Critics also attest to his poor record in other respects. After the coalition broke up, he also took over the education portfolio, which had previously been held by the FDP.
Özdemir often says that he was not born into his career. The 60-year-old liked to tell his career story often during the election campaign: his father worked in several factories and his mother ran her own tailoring business. The son of Turkish migrant workers struggled at school for a long time. He found help from neighbors and friends who supported him with his homework. He went on to study social pedagogy at university of applied sciences. Then came his political rise.
Whether he can also take the final step to the highest office in Baden-Württemberg will be decided during the election evening. But the chances are not bad.
09.03.2026, 07:31
09.03.2026, 09:27
