Thomas Gebhart

Thomas Gebhart (born 20 December 1971) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2009.[1] Following the 2017 elections, he was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health under minister Jens Spahn in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Thomas Gebhart
Thomas Gebhart in 2014
Member of the Bundestag
Assumed office
2009
Preceded byRalf Göbel
Personal details
Born (1971-12-20) 20 December 1971
Kandel, West Germany
(now Germany)
NationalityGerman
Political partyCDU
Children1
Alma mater

Early career

In 1998, Gebhart worked as parliamentary assistant to Heiner Geißler. From 2002 until 2003, he was an employee of German chemical company BASF.

Political career

Career in state politics

From 2003 until 2009, Gebhart was a member of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate. He served as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on environmental policy from 2006 until 2009.

Member of the German Parliament, 2009–present

Gebhart first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal election.[2] From 2009 until 2017, he served on the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. Since 2018, he has been (alongside Sabine Weiss) one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries for Health.

In addition to his committee assignments, Gebhart is a member of the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Political positions

In June 2017, Gebhart voted against his parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of Germany’s introduction of same-sex marriage.[3]

In 2019, Gebhardt joined 14 members of his parliamentary group who, in an open letter, called for the party to rally around Angela Merkel and party chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer amid criticism voiced by conservatives Friedrich Merz and Roland Koch.[4] Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election, he publicly endorsed in 2020 Armin Laschet to succeed Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party’s chair.[5]

References
  1. "Thomas Gebhart | Abgeordnetenwatch". www.abgeordnetenwatch.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  2. "Dr. Thomas Gebhart". CDU/CSU-Fraktion. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  3. Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle Die Welt, June 30, 2017.
  4. Jens Schneider (October 30, 2019), Machtkampf in der CDU: Abgeordnete nennen parteiinterne Kritik "extrem schädlich" Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  5. Andreas Schröder (February 26 2020), Zwei für Merz, einer für Laschet: Wen Pfälzer CDU-Abgeordnete unterstützen wollen Die Rheinpfalz.
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