The Greens in the Hessian state parliament will have to do without two politicians with government responsibility in the future. Priska Hinz and Kai Klose will not stand in the next election. Your path leads out of state politics.
Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Minister for the Environment Priska Hinz and Minister for Social Affairs Kai Klose will no longer stand as candidates in the Hessian state elections next year. The two Greens politicians announced this on Friday in a letter to the party members that was available to the German Press Agency. "After careful consideration, we both decided, after many years of full-time work for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Hessen, not to run for this state election again," it says.
The Greens are government partners of the CDU in Hesse. The new state parliament is expected to be elected in autumn 2023. Other Greens ministers in the coalition are Economics and Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir and Science Minister Angela Dorn.
"After four decades of active green politics, I would like to have more self-determined time for my family and especially my grandchildren, but also for my own hobbies," Priska Hinz was quoted as saying. The 63-year-old has been Minister for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Hesse since 2014.
48-year-old Kai Klose has been State Minister for Social Affairs and Integration since 2019. The health department is also part of his ministry. He also wants to reorient himself professionally: "After the long years in politics, it's time for me to change my perspective, to open a new chapter and to be excited about where the path will lead me," it says Letter to the Greens members.
The Green party leadership reacted with regret to Hinz and Klose's decision. "Anyone who pursues politics with full commitment and passion like the two of them has to put many other areas of life behind them," said state chairmen Sigrid Erfurth and Sebastian Schaub and parliamentary group leader Mathias Wagner. "But politics isn't everything in life. That's why both of us have our respect for the fact that they want to set their priorities differently from 2024."
