Expert Council: Jens Südekum is out of the running

The Council of Economic Experts, the Federal Government's most important advisory body, currently has four members instead of five.

According to information from the FAS, the economist

, who had previously been considered the favourite, has now dropped out of the race for fifth place on the committee, which has been vacant for more than a year.

The Düsseldorf economist was considered the preferred candidate by the SPD and the Greens.

Maya Brankovic

Responsible editor for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Johannes Pennekamp

Responsible editor for economic reporting, responsible for "The Lounge".

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Ever since the market-liberal economist

left the Council last year, there has been a stalemate:

and

, who are considered to be more left-wing in terms of economic policy, face the researchers

and

, who are oriented towards regulatory policy.

Werding had recently replaced

, who surprisingly left the council at his own request.

One of the consequences of the stalemate was that the body has not had a chair for more than a year and has not positioned itself as clearly as usual on important issues.

The fact that Südekum does not get a chance can be seen as a success for the FDP.

Südekum, a respected specialist in regional and foreign trade research, is a member of the SPD.

According to FAS information, the FDP, headed by Federal Finance Minister

, wanted to prevent the traditional council from tilting to the “left”.

Now a candidate is to be found who cannot be assigned to any party.

Lars Feld, the former chairman of the council, recently brought the president of the Ifo Institute,

into play in the FAZ.

So far, however, he has not shown any willingness to take on the time-consuming position.