Cem Ozdemir

Cem Özdemir (Bad Urach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, December 21, 1965) is a German politician, former co-chairman of the Alianza 90/Los Verdes party along with Simone Peter. Since 2021 he has been Germany's Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture in Olaf Scholz's cabinet.

Private and professional life

The son of Turkish immigrants of Circassian origin, Özdemir obtained German citizenship at the age of 18. After studying Social Work, he worked as an educator and journalist. In addition, he has published several books on Turkey and Turkish immigration in Germany. Özdemir is married to the Argentine journalist María Pía Castro. The couple have two children, and live in Berlin.

Party

Since 1981, Özdemir has been a member of the Greens party. From 1989 to 1994 he was part of the steering committee of the regional organization of this party in Baden-Württemberg. In 1992 he co-founded an immigrant association within the party. On June 2, 2008, Özdemir announced his candidacy to succeed Reinhard Bütikofer, one of the party's two presidents. On November 15, 2008 he was elected, becoming the first German party chief from an immigrant family. He left the position in January 2018.

Deputy

In 1994, Özdemir entered the Bundestag, where from 1998 he was the spokesman for internal affairs for the Greens parliamentary group. In 2002 he resigned from his seat in parliament after being embroiled in a scandal that accused him of having used "miles" on the Internet. achieved with trips made as a deputy for private flights.

In 2005 he was elected to the European Parliament, where he was spokesman for the Greens/European Free Alliance parliamentary group on foreign affairs. Özdemir was vice president of the parliamentary commission that investigated the case of the illegal CIA prisons in Europe. In addition, he was involved in the relations between the EU and Turkey and in the search for a solution to the division of Cyprus. In 2007 he participated in the founding of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank that promotes a common EU foreign policy.

In 2008, along with his candidacy for party chairmanship, Özdemir announced his intention to be re-elected to the Bundestag in the 2009 federal elections. However, he was unsuccessful. Since 2009, he no longer serves as an MEP.

In the 2013 federal elections he was elected a Bundestag deputy, and for the 2017 federal elections he was the main candidate of his party along with Katrin Göring-Eckardt, being re-elected.

Following the 2021 federal elections and the formation of the Scholz Cabinet, Özdemir took over as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture.