Andrea Nahles

Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022.

Born in 1970 in Mendig, Rhineland-Palatinate, to a bricklayer and an office clerk, Nahles grew up in the rural Eifel region in West Germany.

In 1988, Nahles joined the SPD at the age of 18.

Shortly after, she was the youth representative for the constituency of Mayen-Koblenz.

She finished high school (Abitur) through a continuing education program in 1989.

She obtained an MA after studying politics, philosophy and German studies at the University of Bonn for 20 semesters (10 years), during which time she was an assistant to a member of parliament.

From 1993 to 1995 she was the youth representative for Rhineland-Palatinate.

In 1995 she became the national youth representative, following Thomas Westphal, a post she held until 1999.

Since 1997 she has been a member of the SPD executive.

In 2000, Nahles was one of the founders of the "Forum Demokratische Linke 21" (Forum of the Democratic Left 21).

In 2004, Nahles began working towards a doctorate in Germanistics.

She abandoned her dissertation in 2005 when she returned to the Bundestag.

The title of her planned dissertation was "Walter Scott's influence on the development of the historical novel in Germany".

She and others repeatedly criticized the leadership style of the party's chairman Franz Müntefering, saying the party was never consulted over Schröder's decision in May 2005 to call early elections or the decision to join a grand coalition under Merkel that would include the major parties.

As party leaders sought to reconcile the bickering factions in the post-Schröder era, Nahles gained in leverage.

On 31 October 2005, she was voted the SPD's general secretary, defeating Kajo Wasserhövel, the favoured man from the conservative side of the party.

Wasserhövel's defeat prompted Franz Müntefering to declare that he no longer felt he had the confidence of the party and would step down.

As a result, Nahles refused to accept the position of general secretary.

Between 2005 and 2009, Nahles served on the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs.

From 2008, she was also a member of the SPD parliamentary group's leadership under chairman Peter Struck.

Ahead of the 2009 elections, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier included her in his shadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats' campaign to unseat incumbent Angela Merkel as chancellor.

During the campaign, Nahles served as shadow minister for education and integration policies, being a counterweight to incumbent Annette Schavan.

Nahles was elected as the SPD's secretary general in November 2009 at the party congress held in Dresden.

She succeeded Hubertus Heil in the position, and worked together with new-elected party leader Sigmar Gabriel.

Her appointment was widely seen as a signal the SPD would shift to the left.

Nahles is known within the party for criticising Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010.

As leader of the SPD's left wing and former head of party's youth section, she opposed many of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's economic reforms, namely the Agenda 2010.

She served as a Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2013 to 2017 and SPD Youth leader.

In her capacity as secretary general, Nahles oversaw the SPD's electoral campaign in 2013.

After the SPD's defeat in the federal elections, she was in charge of organizing a referendum among her party's 472,000 members before signing any coalition treaty with re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative bloc.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the elections, Nahles was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Merkel, Gabriel and Horst Seehofer.

At a three-day party convention held in Leipzig in November 2013, delegates re-elected Nahles to her post with reduced majority.

She received 67.2 percent of members' ballots.

As Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in Chancellor Angela Merkel's third Cabinet, Nahles has overseen the introduction of a national minimum wage for Germany, guaranteeing workers at least 8.50 euros per hour ($11.75).

Merkel had campaigned against a statutory minimum wage in 2013, saying it would threaten Germany's competitive edge and that wage-setting belonged in the hands of companies and employees; however, her party gave ground to the Social Democrats, who made the measure a condition for helping her stay in power for a third term.

Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April 2018 until June 2019 and the leader of the SPD in the Bundestag from September 2017 until June 2019.

In June 2019, in the aftermath of the SPD's result in the 2019 European elections, she announced her resignation as leader of the SPD and as parliamentary leader of the SPD.

For the transition period until a new SPD-leader was elected, Manuela Schwesig, Malu Dreyer and Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel acted as her successors.

Nahles left the Bundestag on 31 October 2019.

From 2020 to 2022, she was the president of the Federal Posts and Telecommunications Agency.