Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière sought to maintain his position

In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, Thomas de Maizière, a former Interior Minister from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), endorsed Horst Seehofer as his successor in the role. However, de Maizière expressed displeasure with his successor's tenure, referring to it as challenging.

De Maizière, who is not running for the Bundestag in this election, described Seehofer as his colleague and friend, but admitted to finding it difficult when he was not reappointed as Interior Minister after the 2017 election. He also referred to the idea that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, another CDU politician who served as Minister of Defence but never held the office of Interior Minister, would take over the Interior Ministry from him for half of the legislative period as a "secret."

In the same interview, de Maizière expressed that he had considered Joachim Herrmann from the CSU as a potential successor, but decided against it during coalition negotiations. He found it unimaginable that Horst Seehofer would come into question for the Interior Minister position.

Seehofer, on the other hand, made a conscious decision not to run for the Bundestag again and sees his departure as a transition, not a turning point. He had little involvement in internal security matters during his tenure as Interior Minister.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Ursula von der Leyen as Defence Minister in 2019, was never Minister of the Interior and thus was not in office during the times mentioned.

The photo of Thomas de Maizière in the article was provided by dts Nachrichtenagentur. De Maizière did not specify his future political plans in the statement. Seehofer has completed his departure from the Bundestag with the recent election.

Despite his displeasure with Seehofer's tenure as Interior Minister, de Maizière acknowledged that Seehofer remains a political person. The statement does not indicate any direct interaction between the two regarding Seehofer's departure.