Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler

Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler
Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler
State Minister for Social Affairs of Rhineland-Palatinate
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 2014
Preceded by	Alexander Schweitzer
Member of the Bundestag
	In office; 2002–2014
Personal details
Born	13 February 1975 (age 49); Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany; (now Germany)
Citizenship	German
Nationality	Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Children	2
Occupation	Politician

Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (born 13 February 1975) is a German politician and member of the SPD.

Political career

Member of the German Bundestag, 2002–2014

Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was first elected to be a member of the Bundestag in the 2002 national elections, representing the constituency of Neuwied from 2002 to 2009 and being elected from the land list in 2009. From 2005 until 2009, she served as the German government's commissioner on drug-related issues in the Federal Ministry of Health. Between 2009 and 2013, she was a member of the Finance Committee and the Sports Committee. In addition to her committee assignments, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was a member of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group.^[1]

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Bätzing was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on financial policy and the national budget, led by Wolfgang Schäuble and Olaf Scholz.

State Minister of Social Affairs, 2014–present

Since 2014, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler has been serving as State Minister of Social Affairs, Labour and Health in the government of Minister-President Malu Dreyer of Rhineland-Palatinate. As one of her state's representatives at the Bundesrat, she serves on the Committee on Labour, Integration and Social Policy; the Committee on Health; and the Committee on Family and Senior Citizen Affairs.

In the coalition talks following the 2017 federal elections, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was part of the working group on social affairs, led by Karl-Josef Laumann, Barbara Stamm and Andrea Nahles.