Newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz, from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), himself a former lobbyist for global investment firm BlackRock, has taken the somewhat unusual step in German politics of appointing three people directly from the world of business to top cabinet jobs.

The new minister of economic affairs and energy is Katherina Reiche (CDU), returning to government after a stint as managing director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) and CEO of energy provider Westenergie, a subsidiary of one of Europe's largest energy concerns E.ON since 2020. The environmentalist Green Party, now back in opposition, has described her as a "gas lobbyist."

Germany's new culture and media commissioner is media entrepreneur Wolfram Weimer, a former editor-in-chief of right-wing newspaper Welt with no previous experience in government of any kind.

The Weimer Media Group founded by Weimer and his wife Christiane Goetz-Weimer hosts annual meetings where power players from business, politics and media gather to network. Since his appointment to the cabinet, Weimer has announced that his wife will now take over as sole managing director of the media group.

The new minister for digitalization and state modernization, Karsten Wildberger, gave up his job as CEO of listed electronics retail group Ceconomy, parent company of two of Germany's largest consumer electronics chains MediaMarkt and Saturn, in order to take up his new job. Like Weimer, Wildberger has never been a politician, elected or otherwise.

The socialist Left Party co-leader Ines Schwedtner criticized the center-left

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