Nils Schmid


Nils Schmid is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party. Since 2018, he has been the SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson for foreign affairs in the German Bundestag.

Early life and education

After his Abitur at Eduard Spranger School, Filderstadt, in 1993, Schmid studied law at the University of Tübingen. He worked as a lawyer, and in 2006 he received his doctorate from Tübingen University. But then he gave up his professional career in favour of politics.

Political career

Schmid joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1991 - and in 1993 he was already elected chairman of the Esslingen district of the Young Socialists in the SPD, becoming deputy chairman of the Young Socialists of Baden-Württemberg in 1996. In 1997 Schmid was elected as a member of Baden-Württemberg's state parliament. There he gradually developed into his party's main speaker on financial affairs.
Schmid was elected deputy leader of the Social Democratic MPs in the Baden-Württemberg parliament. In 2009, he succeed Ute Vogt and became the leader of his party in Baden-Württemberg after winning a poll among its members.

Deputy Minister-President, 2011–2016

After the 2011 state elections, lying only one parliamental seat behind the Greens, Schmid became Deputy Minister-President as well as Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs in the government of Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann of Baden-Württemberg. In this capacity, he was also a member of the German-French Friendship Group set up by the German Bundesrat and the French Senate as well as of the German-Russian Friendship Group set up in cooperation with the Russian Federation Council.
In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition following the 2013 federal elections, Schmid was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on economic policy, led by Ilse Aigner and Hubertus Heil.
Following his party's loss in the 2016 state elections, Schmid's term in government ended in May 2016; he was succeeded by Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut. Later that year, he announced that he would run in the 2017 national elections.

Member of the German Bundestag, 2017 – present

Schmid has been a member of the German Bundestag since September 2017, representing Nürtingen. He serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he is the SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson. Since 2019, he has been a member of the German delegation to the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.

Other activities

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