Boris Rhein

Boris Rhein (born 2 January 1972) is a German politician and the current Minister-President of Hesse. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he has been active in the politics of Hesse since the late 1990s. After being elected to the Landtag of Hesse in 1999, he served as the state's Minister for the Interior from 2010 until 2014 and as the Minister for Science and Art from 2014 to 2019. On 31 May 2022, he was elected to succeed Volker Bouffier as the Minister-President of Hesse.

Life and political career

Boris Rhein was born on 2 January 1972 in Frankfurt am Main. His father, Peter Rhein, headed a department at a local school. After obtaining his ''Abitur'' at Frankfurt's Lessing-Gymnasium, Rhein studied law at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1991 until 1997. From 2001 until 2006, he practiced as a lawyer in his hometown.

In 1990, Rhein joined Junge Union, the youth wing of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), and served on organisation's state board from 1996 until 2002. At the 1999 Hessian state election he was elected to a seat in the Landtag of Hesse, which he occupied until 2006. He then returned to the state parliament at the 2013 Hessian state election. From 2008 to 2012, he led his party in the city of Frankfurt and ran to become its mayor in 2012, but lost to the social democrat Peter Feldmann. Feldmann would be ousted as Mayor by a recall election in the same year he became Minister-President.

Rhein was appointed a Staatssekretär in the Hessian department of justice in 2009, but was promoted to Minister of the Interior when the CDU-politician Volker Bouffier became the Minister-President of Hesse. His tenure was perceived as conservative by the German media: he endorsed state data retention and a harsher penal code in cases of violence against police officers. In 2014, he was moved to the position of Minister for Science and Art, a position he held until 2019. In the same year, he was elected President of the Hessian Landtag.

In 2022, Volker Bouffier, the state's Minister-President and leader of the Hessian CDU, announced that he would vacate his office and designated Rhein as his successor. According to the German daily ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'', he was chosen over Peter Beuth, the Minister of the Interior, Michael Boddenberg, the Minister of Finance, and , the party's leader in the state parliament, because of his standing with Alliance 90/The Greens, the CDU's coalition partner. He was elected to the office of Minister-President on 31 May 2022.

Political positions

Even though Rhein was considered a conservative Minister of the Interior, he rejected this description of his tenure by saying that the office required a rigid enforcement of the law. Citing sources within the party, ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' writes that Rhein had acquired a more centrist profile in the aftermath of his defeat in the 2012 Frankfurt mayoral election.

Personal life

Rhein is married to Tanja Raab-Rhein, a judge and CDU activist. They have two sons, Oskar and Bruno. He is a member of the Catholic Church.

References

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhein, Boris
Living people
1972 births
Politicians from Frankfurt
Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians
Members of the Landtag of Hesse
Goethe University Frankfurt alumni
German Roman Catholics
21st-century German lawyers
Ministers of the Hesse State Government
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic