Silvia Breher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Union | |
| Assumed office 22 November 2019 | |
| Leader | Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Armin Laschet Friedrich Merz |
| Preceded by | Ursula von der Leyen |
| Member of the Bundestag for Cloppenburg – Vechta | |
| Assumed office 24 September 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Franz-Josef Holzenkamp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Silvia Maria Lucke 23 July 1973 Löningen, West Germany (now Germany) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Osnabrück University |
| Website | silvia-breher |
Silvia Maria Breher (née Lucke; born 23 July 1973) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a Member of the Bundestag for the constituency of Cloppenburg – Vechta since the 2017 federal election. At the CDU conference in November 2019 she was elected as one of the deputy leaders of her party;[1] she succeeded Ursula von der Leyen who had been elected to the Presidency of the European Commission.[2]
Breher was born in Löningen and grew up on a farm in Lindern.[2] After gaining her Abitur at Copernicus Gymnasium in Löningen she studied law at the Osnabrück University.[3] At the end of 2000 she began practicing as a self-employed lawyer. From 2011 till 2017 she was the Chief Executive of the "Kreislandsvolkverbandes Vechta", the local farmers' union.[3]
Breher is a member of the Christian Democratic Union and of her local CDU organisation in Cloppenburg. Between 2014 and 2015 she was a member of the CDU Commission Nachhaltig leben – Lebensqualität bewahren[3]. Since 2018 Breher has been the leader of the Cloppenburg CDU district association[4] and the Löningen CDU association. In March 2019 she was elected leader of the Oldenburg CDU state association[5] and thus member of the State Executive of the CDU in Lower Saxony, under the leadership of chairman Bernd Althusmann.
As successor of Franz-Josef Holzenkamp,[6] Breher was selected as the CDU candidate for Cloppenburg – Vechta for the 2017 federal elections. She subsequently won the election with the highest vote share in the country, 57.7 percent.[7] Her constituency is seen as a CDU safe seat, with her party winning the constituency uninterrupted since 1953. In parliament, she has been a member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture (2018–2021) as well as a member of the Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (since 2018).[3]
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Breher co-chaired – alongside Tobias Hans, Hendrik Hoppenstedt, Yvonne Magwas and Paul Ziemiak – the CDU's first ever digital national convention in 2021.[8]
Ahead of the 2021 elections, CDU chairman Armin Laschet included Breher in his eight-member shadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign.[9]
In September 2017, Breher supported same-sex marriages.[10] In April 2020, she co-signed – alongside around 50 other members of her parliamentary group – a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen which called on the European Union to take in children who were living in migrant camps across Greece.[11][12]
For the 2021 national elections, Breher endorsed Armin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel.[13]
