Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is putting two department heads who are largely responsible for digitalization issues into temporary retirement at the end of March. The background is likely to be Faeser's mediocre digital policy interim results – and several upcoming elections.
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Digital policy has not brought Nancy Faeser any luck so far: This Friday, the revision of the online access law, which was supposed to make the administration more digital, also failed in the Federal Council.
Not the minister's only failure: the resignation of the former President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, was her first relevant official act in digitalization – and it went terribly wrong.
Many digital projects from the coalition agreement have not yet been implemented. And the implementation of the current cybersecurity legislation, the revision of the BSI Act as part of the NIS2 directive, has not made progress for months. The dates have been postponed several times.
Now the minister is changing some of her own management staff: In a circular to all employees, which is available online at Heise and which was first reported by Spiegel, Faeser announces personnel changes in her company. She is temporarily retiring two department heads working on digitalization.
Cybersecurity and digital society
The head of the cybersecurity department has to go. Andreas Könen once moved from the position of BSI Vice President to the BMI. In professional circles he is considered highly accomplished: an expert who knows what he is talking about. Politically, however, Könen's line was often controversial; he is considered the brains behind the BMI's controversial cybersecurity strategy.
His successor on April 1st will be Friederike Dahns, who has previously headed the sub-department for the Online Access Act, but previously worked in the area of counter-espionage – and was therefore responsible for economic protection, among other things.
The Digital Society department is also getting new management. Pia Karger has to give up her place here. The department was responsible, among other things, for digital sovereignty, IT standards and the federal IT strategy.
Now a Faeser confidant takes the position: Martin von Simson. He previously headed the central department of the BMI and was known to the wider public primarily through his role in the Schönbohm affair. Von Simon is not known to have a particular affinity for digitalization topics.
Reasons for conversion unclear
How this conversion should be interpreted remains unclear. There has been repeated speculation in recent months about a possible replacement of State Secretary Markus Richter, who is largely responsible for digitalization – but he is allowed to remain in office, at least for the time being. And the head of department responsible for the failed online access law can also keep his place.
It therefore remains unclear whether Faeser actually wants to tackle the largely blind spot of digital policy in the BMI more closely – or whether, a year and a half before the federal election, completely different reasons are playing the main role. Both Karger and Könen came to their posts under Union ministers.
Until last fall, observers explained that Faeser's plans to return to Hesse as Prime Minister were a resounding failure due to the election results there.
(vbr)