Career in state politics In 1995, Paus joined Germany's Green Party, Alliance 90/The Greens. She was involved in the party in various forms. In the
1999 state election, she was elected to the
State Parliament of Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus). There she was her parliamentary group's spokesperson on economic policy.
Member of the German Parliament, 2009–present Paus has been a Member of the German
Bundestag since the
2009 federal elections. She has stood in
Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in 2013, 2017 and 2021. She is a member of the Finance Committee and within the committee she is the Green's spokesperson. In her first term between 2009 and 2013, she also served on the Committee on the Affairs of the
European Union. On the Finance Committee, Paus was involved in the parliamentary inquiry into the
Wirecard scandal from 2020 until 2021; following the inquiry's completion, she co-authored a 675-page report together with
Florian Toncar and
Fabio De Masi. In addition to her committee assignments, Paus has served as deputy chairwoman of the German-Irish Parliamentary Friendship Group (since 2014) and of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with Malta and Cyprus (since 2018). She is also a member of the German-Italian Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-Slovenian Parliamentary Group. Ahead of the national elections in
2017 and
2021, Paus was elected to lead her party's campaign in the state of Berlin. In the negotiations to form a so-called
traffic light coalition of the
Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and the
FDP following the
2021 federal elections, Paus led her party's delegation in the working group on financial regulation and the
national budget; her co-chairs from the other parties were
Doris Ahnen and
Christian Dürr. From December 2021 to April 2022, Paus served as one her parliamentary group's deputy chairs, under the leadership of co-chairs
Britta Haßelmann and
Katharina Dröge, where she oversaw the group's activities on financial policy, economic and social affairs.
Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, 2022–2025 In 2022, Paus succeeded
Anne Spiegel as Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In August 2023, Paus made news headlines when she rejected the coalition government's proposal for a law offering wider corporate tax relief worth billions of euros aimed at reviving growth in Germany's economy and instead suggested to raise spending on child support in tandem with giving more tax benefit to companies. Shortly after, the coalition government agreed on a new basic child benefit allowance at an initial cost of around 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) from 2025. In October 2023, Paus participated in the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz and
President Emmanuel Macron. ==Other activities==