Anke Rehlinger

In March 2018, Rehlinger succeeded Heiko Maas as leader of the SPD in Saarland; at a party convention, she was elected with a majority of 94.5 percent. At a SPD national convention in 2019, Rehlinger was elected as one of the five deputies of the party’s co-chairs Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, alongside Klara Geywitz, Hubertus Heil, Kevin Kühnert and Serpil Midyatli.

As one of her state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Rehlinger serves on the Committee on Labour, Integration and Social Policy; the Committee on Economic Affairs; and on the Committee on Transport. In the negotiations to form a coalition government on the national level following the 2017 federal elections, Rehlinger co-chaired the working group on agriculture; her counterparts were Julia Klöckner and Christian Schmidt. She was also a member of the working group on transport.

Between 2012 and 2014, Rehlinger was State Minister of Justice, Consumer Protection and Environmental Affairs in the government of Minister President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer of Saarland. In 2014, she succeeded Heiko Maas and has since been serving as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for Economic Affairs, first under the leadership of Kramp-Karrenbauer (2014-2018) and later Tobias Hans (since 2018). She was the candidate of SPD in 2017 state elections, but lost against Kramp-Karrenbauer and continued her role in the state government instead.

Since 2004 Rehlinger has been a member of the Landtag of Saarland. In parliament, she served as Chairwoman of the Committee on European Affairs (2008-2009) and of the Committee on Education, Cultural Affairs and Media (2009-2011). From 2011 until 2012, she was her parliamentary group's deputy chairwoman.

Anke Rehlinger (born 6 April 1976) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Deputy Minister President of Saarland since 2013.