Tarek Al-Wazir

Tarek Al-Wazir
Deputy Minister-President of Hesse
Assumed office
18 January 2014
Prime Minister Volker Bouffier
Preceded by Jörg-Uwe Hahn
Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development
Assumed office
18 January 2014
Prime Minister Volker Bouffier
Preceded by Florian Rentsch
Personal details
Born (1971-01-03) January 3, 1971
Offenbach am Main, Hesse,  West Germany
Nationality German, Yemeni
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.

Early life and education

Al-Wazir was born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, the son of an upper-class Yemeni father and a sudeten 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.

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. Surveys showed Al-Wazir to be Hesse's most popular politician at the time of the vote.[2] This time his party, also 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 state elections, Al-Wazir became Deputy of the Hessian Minister-President Volker Bouffier and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development in a Black-Green coalition. Thus they formed only the third CDU-Green government in Germany’s 16 federal states and the first in a big and socially diverse region.[3] As one of Hesse’s representatives at the Bundesrat, Al-Wazir is a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on Transport.

Other activities (selection)

Personal life

Al-Wazir is married to a Yemeni woman, with whom he has two sons.[5]

  1. ↑ Tarek, nicht Fritz, taz vom 27. Oktober 2008
  2. ↑ Dave Graham (February 4, 2009), "Mac" brings Scottish flavor to German politics Reuters.
  3. ↑ Stefan Wagstyl (December 17, 2013), Germany’s CDU and Greens strike coalition pact in Hesse region Financial Times.
  4. ↑ Board of Trustees Rheingau Musik Festival.
  5. ↑ "Grünen-Chef Tarek Al-Wazir gilt als scharfzüngiger Redner", 12. January 2008
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