Nancy Faeser has made her decision.

The Federal Minister of the Interior announced on Thursday evening that she will run for the office of Minister President as the top candidate in the state elections in Hesse in autumn.

"I am the first woman to head the Federal Ministry of the Interior - and I want to be the first female Prime Minister in Hesse," she told the "Spiegel".

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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At the same time, Faeser made it clear that she would continue in her position as Federal Minister of the Interior – during the election campaign and also in the event of a defeat in Hesse in October.

That requires responsibility for the office in difficult times, said the minister.

And: "I was already the leader of the opposition." In the interview she continued: "If the voters decide otherwise, I will continue to fulfill my responsibility as Federal Minister of the Interior."

The rumor that she wanted to use her office as a springboard for this candidacy had accompanied her since she was appointed Federal Minister of the Interior in December 2021.

While Faeser had never publicly claimed that goal, she had done nothing to dispel the suspicion either.

On the contrary.

The latest in a series of hints came in the press invitation for Friday afternoon this week.

Then the Hessian SPD wants to officially announce the line-up for the state elections at the start of their closed conference in Friedewald.

The Social Democratic Prime Ministers Malu Dreyer from Rhineland-Palatinate and Anke Rehlinger from Saarland are also part of the party.

Faeser then makes the picture perfect from the perspective of the SPD: three social democrats who govern in three countries, two are already doing it, hopefully the third will do it soon.

With Franziska Giffey, who still has to pass an election in Berlin in ten days, and Manuela Schwesig in Schwerin, there could even be five red state leaders.

That would not only add a little more punch to the SPD's narrative of the "social democratic decade".

Women's power against parity problems

The presentation of social democratic women's power also helps to make people forget that since Boris Pistorius was appointed defense minister, there have been more men than women in the federal cabinet and that the social democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz has broken his election promise of parity.

For a long time, Faeser avoided a direct commitment to her Hessian future plans, but at the same time she always said more about it than was necessary.

For example: "Hesse is my homeland, but the question does not arise now." In her first interview as federal minister, she mentioned, without being directly addressed, that she wanted to be re-elected as state chairwoman in her home country.

"My heart is in Hesse," she said at the SPD state party conference.

The Hessian comrades, who have been in the opposition in the state since 1999, took this as a message that they could count on her - and tailored the election campaign to her.

"Hessen" is written in white on her desk in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and Faeser had her picture taken with it.

She liked to use the Hessian backdrop for appointments as Minister of the Interior.

She invited her fellow interior ministers from the G-7 countries to Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau, for example.

It suited her that the Federal Criminal Police Office has its headquarters in Wiesbaden, the Hessian capital.