Winfried Kretschmann

Winfried Kretschmann
Kretschmann in 2018
Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 May 2011
Deputy	Nils Schmid Thomas Strobl
Preceded by	Stefan Mappus
President of the Bundesrat
In office 1 November 2012 – 31 October 2013
First Vice President	Horst Seehofer
Preceded by	Horst Seehofer
Succeeded by	Stephan Weil
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg for Nürtingen Incumbent Assumed office 11 May 2016 Preceded by Thaddäus Kunzmann In office 11 June 1996 – 11 May 2016 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by multi-member district In office 7 June 1988 – 10 June 1992 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by multi-member district In office 3 June 1980 – 5 June 1984 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by multi-member district
Personal details
Born	(1948-05-17) 17 May 1948 (age 76) Spaichingen, Württemberg-Hohenzollern, French occupation zone, Allied-occupied Germany (now Baden-Württemberg, Germany)
Political party	Alliance 90/The Greens (1979–)
Other political affiliations	Communist League of West Germany (1973–1975)
Spouse(s)	Gerlinde Kretschmann, née Kienle ​ ​ (m. 1975)​
Alma mater	University of Hohenheim
Occupation	Politician Teacher
Website	www.winfried-kretschmann.de
Military service
Allegiance	Germany
Branch/service	Bundeswehr
Years of service	1968–1970

Winfried Kretschmann (born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ex officio deputy to the President of Germany from 2012 to 2013. He is the first member of the Greens to serve in these offices. Identifying himself as a green conservative, Kretschmann has been associated with both culturally and economically liberal policies.

Kretschmann has been a member of the state parliament, the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg, since 1980, in the constituency of Nürtingen. In 2006 he was the frontrunner in the Baden-Württemberg state election for his party, as he was in the state election on 27 March 2011. He was also the chairman of his party's parliamentary group.^[1]

Following the state election of 2011,^[2] Kretschmann was elected on 12 May 2011 by the combined Green-SPD majority in the Landtag to succeed Stefan Mappus as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, becoming the first ever Green Minister-President of any German state. Kretschmann has wide personal popularity; if it were possible to elect the Minister-President directly during the Baden-Württemberg election of March 2016, Kretschmann would have won an outright majority according to polls; he was even favored by 45% of CDU supporters.^[3] Kretschmann was re-elected in May 2016 as Minister-President while leading a new coalition with the Christian Democrats.^[4]

On 12 October 2012 he was elected President of the German Bundesrat for the term from 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2013.^[5] This was the first time since 1953, and only the second time ever, that the President was not drawn from the ranks of either the CDU/CSU or the SPD, until November 1, 2021, when Bodo Ramelow of The Left was elected president of the Bundesrat.