Germany’s economics and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel is stepping down to succeed his fellow Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier as foreign minister.
Brigitte Zypries is expected to be nominated by the Social Democrats as Gabriel’s successor.
She is currently a junior minister in the economics and energy ministry and from 2002 to 2009 was Germany’s minister of justice.
Gabriel was energy minister for three years and oversaw the overhaul of Germany’s renewable energy support scheme, transferring it from fixed feed-in tariffs to a system of competitive tendering.
Image: German economics and energy ministry
