Berlin: Özdemir plans to retreat to Baden-Württemberg

After the end of his term in office, Özdemir will return home from Berlin. The dual minister already has an apartment.

Cem Özdemir is preparing to leave the capital. The current Federal Minister of Agriculture wants to move his life back to his home state of Baden-Württemberg after the end of his term in office. "I will pack up my things in Berlin soon, as soon as I am no longer a minister," said the 59-year-old on SWR.

The politician, who was born in Bad Urach in the Swabian district of Reutlingen, is the designated top candidate of the Greens for the 2026 state elections in Baden-Württemberg. He has already made preparations for the planned move: "I already have an apartment there," explained Özdemir, but as a dual minister he still has to stay in Berlin. Since the end of the traffic light coalition, Özdemir has headed the Federal Ministry of Education in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture.

In the SWR broadcast, Özdemir met his presumed challenger, CDU regional leader Manuel Hagel, for the first time in such a format since announcing his candidacy. The meeting took place without any major confrontations. Hagel merely criticized Özdemir and the Greens in their migration policy.

"The Green-Black state government submitted a motion to the Bundesrat in this area and launched initiatives towards the federal government ," explained the CDU politician. "These were then dismissed by the federal cabinet and the Green parliamentary group, of which the Federal Minister of Agriculture is a member. So there is a clear discrepancy between what we have done here and what has been done in Berlin," said Hagel.