Boris Pistorius, the new defense minister, is seen as a skilled politician but, entering a world stage on which Ukraine is at war, he may pose a risk for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
BERLIN — Within hours of being sworn into office, Germany’s new defense minister will be expected to hold talks with the U.S. defense secretary. A day later, he will represent Germany’s armed forces at a meeting with European allies awaiting critical decisions on the war in Ukraine.
That would not be an easy first week for any new government official, let alone one familiar only with local politics, with no experience on the national or world stage.
But that is the stage on which Boris Pistorius will soon find himself.
Though Mr. Pistorius has won praise for his nine years running the interior ministry of Lower Saxony, he has no background in foreign affairs or global security. For Germany’s allies, the transition may be just as disconcerting.
Little is known of his views on the biggest questions of the day, from military spending on NATO to his vision on Germany’s future approach toward Russia.
“He’s being thrown into the deep end immediately — and we’re all watching in suspense to see how the waters suit him,” said Uwe Jun, a political scientist at the University of Trier who focuses on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, the senior party of Germany’s coalition government.
Mr. Jun called the chancellor’s decision to promote Mr. Pistorius, a longtime stalwart of the Social Democrats, to such a heady position a “complete surprise.”
The choice was not just unexpected but also risky for a chancellor who has declared that his country needs to fundamentally rethink its military stance.
“Zeitenwende” — “turning point” — is the term Mr. Scholz has used to describe his vision for upending decades of a German foreign policy that was pacifist and tentative. He underpinned it with a massive spending package of 100 billion euros (about $108 billion) to reboot Germany’s armed forces for an era of increasing instability in Europe.
“This is not just a change of a minister, this is a change in a key ministry,” said Claudia Major, a defense expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “If he chose the right person, if this person is able to make things move — that will decide Scholz’s success on Zeitenwende.”
