In the state elections at the end of March, the SPD, led by Anke Rehlinger, achieved an absolute majority, and Rehlinger's election as Prime Minister of Saarland was even clearer: 32 MPs voted for her on Monday, three more than the SPD parliamentary group has MPs .
Rehlinger accepted the choice with a relieving smile.
Julian Staib
Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.
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The session of the new state parliament was historic: for the first time, a woman from the SPD was elected prime minister, and for the first time, with Heike Becker, a woman was also president of the state parliament.
Becker was surprisingly presented as a candidate by Rehlinger last week.
The 46-year-old administrative specialist only moved up to the state parliament two and a half years ago.
Becker announced that he wanted to open the state parliament further to the population, also against the background of the low turnout.
Former Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) was among the first to congratulate Rehlinger.
He had led his CDU to a historic electoral defeat, and now he sits in parliament as a simple member.
The CDU is facing a difficult time: the election result must be processed, at the same time it must be possible to set its own accents against the former coalition partner in the three-party parliament and to differentiate itself from the small AfD parliamentary group.
Hans handed Rehlinger over to Rehlinger on Monday afternoon in the State Chancellery;
they had governed together since 2018, now the SPD is doing it alone.
Driving the transformation
Since the election, Rehlinger has repeatedly announced that it intends to drive forward the transformation of the industry.
Here the Social Democrats face immense challenges.
Structural change is not just about getting through somehow, "but giving this country new power and new strength from the change," said Rehlinger.
Above all, the change in the car industry, which in Saarland is heavily geared towards suppliers and the combustion engine, must succeed.
A lot of money from the federal government will be needed for this, and Rehlinger called for it immediately after the election.
Otherwise, billions would have to be spent on people who would lose their jobs, she warned.
The realization of the many SPD projects from the election program will also cost a lot of money - such as free day care, the expansion of the fiber optic network or cheaper local public transport.
None of this is likely to be easy given the budget situation in this chronically cash-strapped small country.
Jakob von Weizsäcker, who is considered the bigger surprise in Rehlinger's cabinet, which is scheduled to be sworn in this Tuesday, will be responsible for the billions from the federal government.
Von Weizsäcker was most recently head of the policy department and chief economist in the Federal Ministry of Finance under Olaf Scholz (SPD), he is said to have proposed himself for the post in the Saar.
Rehlinger left the number of ministries as under Black and Red, but changed the layout, especially in the Ministry of Economics.
It loses the topic of work to the Ministry of Social Affairs and mobility to the Ministry of the Environment, but in return it receives the areas of digitization and innovation in order to gain more creative power in structural change.
Economics Minister (and Deputy Prime Minister) is to be Rehlinger's former Secretary of State, Jürgen Barke.
The previous parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Petra Berg, will in future head a kind of super ministry with responsibility for the topics of the environment, climate protection, consumer protection, mobility and agriculture, but also justice.
Magnus Jung becomes Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Christine Streichert-Clivot remains Minister of Education;
Reinhold Jost, previously Environment Minister, now heads the Ministry of the Interior, Building and Sport.
Rehlinger made David Lindemann, previously head of department in the Ministry of Economics, head of the state chancellery.