Reem Alabali-Radovan becomes Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development in new German cabinet

BERLIN — Reem Alabali-Radovan (34) has been appointed as the Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development in the new German cabinet of Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU). From 2021, Alabali-Radovan (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) served as the federal Commissioner for Integration, Refugees, and Integration.

The new coalition government is made up of sister parties CDU and Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) and the SPD. Elections were held in February. Alabali-Radovan was re-elected to the German parliament. Although she did not win the direct elections for the Schwerin und Westmecklenburg district — she received 34,101 votes (2021: 44,107). She still took a seat because of her ranking on the SPD list and the electoral structure of the German elections. 

Alabali-Radovan (34) is the first person of Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian descent in the Bundestag. The Alabali family originates from Iraq.

She was born in Russia in 1990. In 1996 Alabali-Radovan moved to Germany, where she studied political science at the Free University of Berlin and got more politically active for the SPD.