State Chancellery head Oliver Schenk is to lead the Saxon Union in the 2024 European election. The CDU state chairman Michael Kretschmer has proposed the 55-year-old as a top candidate at list position 1, as the Union announced on Tuesday in Dresden.
The Bavarian-born Schenk has served since 1994 in environment, finance and interior ministries, as well as a prime minister in Saxony. After stations with the federal CDU and the Federal Ministry of Health, he returned and has been head of the State Chancellery and Minister for Federal and European Affairs since 2017. Saxony's Union wants to decide on the state list at the state representative assembly on January 20, 2024.
"For the future, we want changes in the European Union," Kretschmer said. Especially with regard to Europe's competitiveness, more efforts and impulses are needed, he said. "Less bureaucracy, more investment in research and infrastructure and, above all, a strengthening of the regions and countries in the decision-making processes." This requires "a strong and experienced voice in the European Parliament."
