Shifts in Merz Cabinet: New Digital Minister given great power

The newly created Digital Ministry draws responsibilities from six other ministries. Chancellor Merz has placed Wildberger, head of the department, high in the cabinet hierarchy. The former executive also has veto power over all federal IT spending.

The new Digital Ministry will be granted even more extensive powers than originally planned. This is according to the so-called organizational decree of the new black-red government, which the new federal cabinet approved late this evening at its first meeting. According to this decree, the ministry, headed by CDU minister Karsten Wildberger, will receive departments or responsibilities from a total of six departments. The goal is to massively accelerate digitalization in Germany.

Responsibilities for strategic foresight and fundamental issues of digital policy will be transferred from the Federal Chancellery to the new ministry, which will initially be located in a building belonging to the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of the Interior will have to relinquish the two departments of digital administration and digital society, as well as general IT procurement, "the management of federal IT, including the associated infrastructure and the associated IT security limited to it," and even cybersecurity in the federal administration. The BMI, as the Ministry of Security, was determined to retain this responsibility.

The former Ministry of Transport and Digital Affairs is relinquishing its digital and data policy and its department for digital infrastructures. From the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Wildberger will assume responsibility for European and national better regulation and bureaucracy reduction, as well as, among other things, the Digital Summit, digital policy (excluding postal services), and the digital economy. The Ministry of Finance, for example, will have to relinquish some of its responsibility for the Information Technology Center (ITZBund) and the so-called sovereign cloud for administrations. The Ministry of Justice will relinquish its office for bureaucracy reduction, better regulation, and the National Regulatory Control Council, as well as its lead role in implementing the EU Directive on Artificial Intelligence.

Veto right for all IT spending

However, to better manage the entire federal IT system, the new Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization will also be granted a conditional approval "for all significant IT expenditures of the direct federal administration." Exceptions apply only to security expenditures and tax administration.

The special appreciation for the ministry called for by Chancellor Friedrich Merz is also reflected in the fact that, as a new department, it ranks ahead of the Ministry of Transport, the Environment, and Health in the order of departments also determined by the cabinet. Digital Minister Wildberger, 55, holds a doctorate in physics and has been CEO of Mediamarkt's parent company, Ceconomy, since 2021. Previously, he held managerial positions at E.ON and Vodafone, at Deutsche Telekom from 2003 to 2006, and as a management consultant at Boston Consulting from 1998 to 2003.

Bär heads upgraded technology ministry

The upgraded Ministry of Research, Technology and Space is expected to become the central technology department. From the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the department headed by CSU minister Dorothee Bär will assume responsibility for space, fundamental issues of national and international innovation and technology policy, the development of digital technologies, the high-tech agenda, gigafactories, and the so-called "Sprind Agency" for particularly innovative developments.

The Ministry of Transport must relinquish responsibility for drone airspace management, Earth observation, satellite navigation and communications, and the German Galileo PRS Authority. The Ministry of Research is already responsible for quantum technologies and nuclear fusion.