Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder is breaking up with ZDF.
The CSU politician resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors in December with immediate effect, the office of the control body said.
Reason: “The membership in the ZDF board of directors was resigned in December after four years, as extensive obligations in Bavaria unfortunately do not allow further activity,” said a spokesman for the Bavarian State Chancellery.
A successor has not yet been announced. The Prime Ministers’ Conference decides on personal details for state representatives for the ZDF Council.
Three heads of state are currently still represented in the supervisory body, which controls the work of the ZDF director and pays attention to profitability: the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD, chairwoman), Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) and Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU).
The council has twelve members. Eight are elected by the second supervisory body, the Television Council. These eight members may neither be part of a government nor a member of the Bundestag or state parliaments. There are also four representatives from the federal states.
In Bavaria, a new state parliament will be elected at the beginning of October. Söder will be there again. According to the ZDF committee office, he had been a member of the board of directors since February 2019. At that time he succeeded Horst Seehofer (CSU). Söder was reappointed by the country heads in 2020 for the current term of office. According to the ZDF state contract, a term of office lasts five years, but you can also resign from office early.