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The Green politician Aminata Touré was sworn into office on Wednesday as a Minister in Schleswig-Holstein. The event, which took place in Kiel, is an historic one as Ms Touré thus became the first minister of African origin in Germany.
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“What an honour! As from today, I am Minister for Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Senior Citizens, Integration and Equality in Schleswig-Holstein,” the 29-year-old politician posted elatedly on her Facebook and Twitter pages on Wednesday.
“Schleswig-Holstein is my home and to be able to take on political responsibility here is the greatest honour for me,” she added
Schleswig-Holstein is one of the 16 states of Germany and its capital city is Kiel.
Touré is a member of the new CDU/Green coalition government in Schleswig-Holtstein, led by the Christian Democrat Daniel Günther as Minister President.
The Afro-German politician was elected into the state parliament (Landtag) in 2017 and has repeatedly attracted national media attention with her speeches on migration and women issues.
Touré had also made history on 28 August 2019 when she was elected the Vice-President of the state parliament, the first Black person to hold such a high position in the country.
Touré was born and raised in Neumünster, a town in Schleswig-Holstein. Her parents had fled Mali in 1991 in the aftermath of a military coup to seek political asylum in Germany. She studied Political Science and French Philology at the Christian Albrecht University, Kiel.
In 2012, Touré became a member of the youth wing of the Green party in Kiel and was elected its spokesperson a year later. In 2016, she was elected into the executive committee of the party in Schleswig-Holstein. She held this office until the 2017 state election, when she stood as a candidate for her party in the Neumünster state parliamentary constituency. It was that election that took the African politician into parliament through the party’s list.
Vivian Asamoah
READ ALSO Aminata Touré elected Vice President of Schleswig-Holstein parliament
