In the European elections in May this year, Germany’s Minister of Justice Katharina Barley was elected to the European Parliament. As being a member of the European Parliament is incompatible with holding an executive office in a member state, she had to resign. (A little bit of trivia: Katharina Barley started her career as an associate in my firm’s Hamburg office before moving on to judicial and political appointments.)
Katharina Barley is suceeded by Christine Lambrecht, who has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1998. From 2011 to 2013, Christine Lambrecht was a vice-chairwoman of the Social Democrat’s parliamentary group and from December 2013 to September 2017, its first parliamentary director. From March 2018 to June 2019 she served as Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance.