Early beginnings In 1996, Klöckner joined the
Junge Union (JU), the
Frauen Union (FU, the German "Women's Union"), the
Christian Democratic Union party, the
Europa Union and the
Young European Federalists. In 2001 she became a member of the JU's local board in Bad Kreuznach, an office she held until 2007. In the same year she also became a member of the local (county-level) CDU board in Bad Kreuznach. In 2002, Klöckner became a member of the Regional Committee on Security Policy and the Armed Forces and the JU Regional Executive of
Rhineland-Palatinate, where she stayed until 2007.
Member of the Bundestag, 2002–2011 First term, 2002–2005 In October 2002, following the
German federal election that year, Klöckner entered the German parliament, the
Bundestag, via the Rhineland-Palatinate list of state candidates, having scored 7% less than her SPD rival
Fritz-Rudolf Körper in the first round of voting. On 14 November 2002 Klöckner was elected as one of the secretaries of the Bundestag's plenary sessions. In addition she joined the board of trustees of the
Federal Agency for Civic Education. Later she became a member of the Committee for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. and alternate member of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. In 2003 she joined the
commission of inquiry into "Ethics and Rights in Modern Medicine" and was a member of its sub-groups: "Ethics in Bioscientific and Medical Research" and "Transplantation Medicine". She also founded a parliamentary wine forum and belonged to the all-party discussion group on hospice and palliative care. Klöckner became a member of the "Young Group" (
Junge Gruppe) of the
CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, where she served as deputy chairwoman.
Second term, 2005–2009 In the
federal elections in 2005 Klöckner secured the
constituency of Kreuznach for the CDU for the first time in around 50 years with 43.0% of voters placing her first. On 15 December 2005 she was re-elected as secretary to the Bundestag. On 24 January 2006 Klöckner was elected to the board of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. She was a full member of the committee for consumer Protection and an alternate member of the Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety. On 2 June 2006 she also joined the Parliamentary Advisory Board for Sustainable Development. In addition, she served as deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with
Belgium and
Luxembourg. On 23 October 2007 Klöckner was unanimously voted as deputy chairwoman and thus as chairwoman of the working group for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. She was part of this working group until 2009. In July 2008 Klöckner began a two-year stint as chairwoman of the newly constituted consumer advisory body of Schufa established to represent the interests of
consumer protection. In the
2009 federal elections Klöckner was confirmed as the directly elected member of parliament for the constituency of Kreuznach/Birkenfeld with 47.0% of first votes and an 18% lead over her SPD rival. In the negotiations to form a
coalition government of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian
CSU) and the
Free Democratic Party (FDP), she was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on environment, agriculture and consumer protection policies, led by
Ilse Aigner and
Michael Kauch. After the constitution of the Rhineland-Palatinate parliament on 18 May 2011, Klöckner resigned her seat in the Bundestag on 27 May 2011.
Parliamentary State Secretary On 29 October 2009, Klöckner was appointed as a Parliamentary State Secretary of the
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture under Minister
Ilse Aigner. In February 2011 she resigned from this office in order to run the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate. Her successor in this office is
Peter Bleser (CDU).
State politics in Rhineland-Palatinate Within the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU, Klöckner moved up to the party's state executive committee in 2003. On 13 June 2004 Julia Klöckner was elected to the county council (
Kreistag) of
Bad Kreuznach with 42,888 votes, the highest number of votes of the 50 CDU candidates. In the next council elections on 7 June 2009 she was again elected with the most votes (this time 46,759 votes). On 8 July 2006 Klöckner was elected as Deputy State Chairwoman of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU with 91.5% of the vote on the CDU Party's 59th Regional Day. On 17 November 2009, Klöckner was proposed by the CDU chairman for Rhineland-Palatinate,
Christian Baldauf, as the lead candidate for the 2011 state elections. On 17 April 2010 she was duly elected as the CDU's front runner at the CDU state party conference in
Bingen am Rhein with 400 out of 402 votes cast (99.5%). On 25 September 2010 at the state party conference in
Mainz, she was elected as leader of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU with 96.9% of the vote. On 4 December 2010 she achieved first place in the state list for the 2011 elections at the party conference of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU Association in
Ramstein-Miesenbach, gaining 99.6% of the votes. In the
state elections on 27 March 2011, voters gave Klöckner the direct mandate for the constituency of
Bad Kreuznach with 44.4% of the votes. After scoring their lowest result in the 2006 elections with only 32.8% of the vote, the CDU's performance state level was 2.5% higher than the national trend and just 0.5% behind the SDP, who suffered a historic loss of 9.9% of the vote. Following the state elections, Klöckner was unanimously elected as the CDU's party leader in the Rhineland-Palatinate parliament on 30 March 2011. In the
2016 state elections, Klöckner again ran for the office of
Minister-President of
Rhineland-Palatinate. With the
European migrant crisis emerging as the dominating campaign issue, Klöckner responded by trying to harden her line on migrants while carefully avoiding any whiff of disloyalty to Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a joint statement with CDU
Baden-Württemberg leading candidate
Guido Wolf Klöckner proposed in February 2016 flexible daily quotas for refugee inflows into Germany, which was a step beyond Merkel's “open-doors” policy but not so far as the
CSU, the CDU's Bavaria-based sister party, which backed fixed annual limits. No one should be allowed to enter Germany without a reason for asylum or a protection status. She eventually lost against incumbent Malu Dreyer.
Role in national politics In 2003, Klöckner was elected to the federal board of the
Frauen Union, a national organization for CDU women. In addition she became a deputy member in the board of the
European People's Party. On 14 May 2007 she became the deputy chairwoman of the CDU Commission on the "Preservation of the Creation: Climatic, Environmental and Consumer Protection", where she led the Sub-Commission on Consumer Protection. At the 23rd national CDU party conference on 15 November 2010, Klöckner became a member of the CDU
Präsidium or steering committee with 94.43% of the votes, the highest number of votes out of all 40 candidates. On 4 December 2012 she was elected as one of five deputy chairpersons of the national CDU party with 92.92% of the votes (once again the best result), serving alongside
Volker Bouffier,
Armin Laschet,
Thomas Strobl and
Ursula von der Leyen. Following the
2013 federal elections, Klöckner was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the SPD on a coalition agreement for the
third government of
Chancellor Angela Merkel. By 2016, she was widely seen by commentators as having quietly positioned herself as a leading candidate to replace Merkel. From 2018 to 2021, Klöckner served as agriculture minister in Merkel's third government. In 2025, she was elected as
president of the
Bundestag after gaining the support of 382 MPs as against 204 negative votes and 31 abstentions. == Other activities ==