Two chancellors, one defence minister
Pistorius is the only member of Olaf Scholz’s government to have kept his post under Friedrich Merz. This page follows his place in Berlin: the cabinet, the party, the 2024 candidacy debate and the Bundestag.
A The cabinets
Serving two very different governments
Scholz cabinet · 2023–2025
SPD, Greens and FDP (“traffic-light” coalition)
- Appointed after Christine Lambrecht’s resignation; sworn in on 19 January 2023
- Worked within the constitutional debt brake and the €100 billion special fund
- Clashed publicly with the finance ministry over the 2025 budget in July 2024
- Coalition collapsed on 6 November 2024; early election called
Merz cabinet · since 2025
CDU/CSU and SPD
- Reappointed on 6 May 2025, the only minister carried over from the previous government
- Benefits from the March 2025 debt-brake reform exempting defence spending above 1% of GDP
- Negotiated the military service law with the Union parliamentary group in autumn 2025
- Presented a 2027 budget request of nearly €140 billion in September 2026
B November 2024
The candidacy that wasn’t
The collapse of the traffic-light coalition on 6 November 2024 forced an early federal election. Polls at the time showed Chancellor Scholz trailing CDU leader Friedrich Merz, while Pistorius had been ranked as Germany’s most popular politician in several surveys since 2023. Within the SPD, a number of members of parliament and regional figures publicly suggested that he would be the stronger candidate.
For roughly two weeks the party leadership left the question open. On 21 November 2024 Pistorius ended it with a video message saying that he was not available as a candidate for chancellor and that he supported Olaf Scholz. The SPD went on to its worst federal result in post-war history on 23 February 2025, with 16.4 per cent.
Supporters of his decision argued that it spared the party a damaging leadership fight. Others argued that the drawn-out public debate had already damaged Scholz before the campaign began.
C The Bundestag
A first federal mandate at 64
Nominated by the SPD in Hanover on 10 December 2024, Pistorius stood in the Hannover II constituency and won it directly. He took his seat in the 21st Bundestag when it first met on 25 March 2025.
36.2%
His share of the constituency (first) vote in Hannover II, 23 February 2025
Federal Returning Officer
19.1%
Runner-up Swantje Michaelsen of the Greens
Federal Returning Officer
16.4%
The SPD’s national second-vote result in the same election
Federal Returning Officer
6 May
2025: sworn in again as Defence Minister in the Merz cabinet
Federal Government
D Within the SPD
A centrist voice in a divided party
On security policy, Pistorius belongs to the wing of the SPD that broke most clearly with the party’s long tradition of engagement with Moscow. That has made him popular with voters beyond his party, and a target for its peace-policy wing.
The tension surfaced in June 2025, when around a hundred SPD members, led by former parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich and the foreign-policy specialist Ralf Stegner, published a manifesto calling for de-escalation and talks with Russia. Pistorius called the paper a “denial of reality” that misused people’s wish for an end to the war.
In the autumn of 2025 he was at odds with parts of his own parliamentary group and with the Union over the military service law. The dispute ended in a compromise on 13 November 2025. See Controversies and Major decisions.