Successor of Claudia Roth
Joe Chialo should apparently become the new Minister of Culture
04/10/2025 – 8:10 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Berlin’s cultural senator is apparently traded as Minister of Culture in the new federal cabinet. The CDU politician would replace Claudia Roth from the Greens.
Berlin’s cultural senator Joe Chialo (CDU) is apparently faced with a change to federal politics. According to matching reports from the “BZ” and the “Berliner Zeitung”, the 54-year-old should be intended as the new Minister of Culture and thus succeed Claudia Roth (Greens). With this position, Chialo would in future sit at the CDU/CSU and SPD cabinet table and have a responsibility for cultural and media policy in Germany.
Born in Bonner with Tanzanian roots, the cultural senator in Berlin has been in Berlin since April 2023. At the beginning of January, Chialo had told the German Press Agency that he was “really the most beautiful office next to the Pope” as a cultural senator. With regard to federal political ambitions, he expressed himself skeptically: “In these challenging times with the austerity measures in Berlin with half a foot in the federal government, the realities failed to recognize.”
Chialo only hit the headlines nationwide in February when Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had referred to him in private reception as the “CDU”. The incident caused considerable political vertebrae. At that time, Chialo explained in a statement to the German Press Agency: “In the course of the discussion on the subject of migration and the votes in the Bundestag, the terms ‘courtnarr’ and ‘Feigenblatt’ fell with regard to my role in the CDU. These words hit me deeply.”
After a clarifying phone call with the Federal Chancellor, Chialo was conciliatory: “In our conversation, he regretted that his statements were understood as racist and explained that he did not intend to do so,” said Chialo. He noted the chancellor’s point of view. “Incidentally, I don’t think Olaf Scholz is a racist. However, this does not change that his words were degrading and hurtful,” said Chialo.
The CDU politician can look back on an unusual career: after graduating from high school at an order of the order, he initially completed an apprenticeship as a milling machine. Later he worked as a bouncer and manager in the music industry. In the 1990s, Chialo belonged to the Greens before moving to the CDU in 2016.
