Roland Koch
Roland Koch (born
March 24 1958 in
Frankfurt am Main) is a
German politician. He has been prime minister of
Hesse since
April 7 1999.
In
1979 he became the youngest person to hold the office of chair of the
CDU youth group in the
Main-Taunus district. From
1983 until
1987 he was vice-chair of the federal youth organization of the CDU. In
1985 he completed his studies to become a lawyer.
Until
1993 he was a city council member in his hometown of
Eschborn. He was also a member of the
Main-Taunus district council and parliamentary leader of the CDU group there from
1989 until
1997. In
1987 he was elected to the legislature of Hesse, where he became vice-chair of the CDU parliamentary group in
1991 and in
1993 chair. Since
1998 he has also been chair of the Hessian state party.
Koch is a rhetorically gifted politician, whom critics have accused of
populism. In the state elections in 1999, the CDU began collecting signatures to document the resistance in the population to plans of the federal government to make
dual citizenship easier for foreigners to obtain. Because some people viewed this action as "collecting signatures against foreigners", they viewed the campaign as xenophobic. Koch was able to win the election and displace the incumbent,
Hans Eichel.
In early
2000 the Hessian CDU made headlines with a
money laundering scandal dating back to 1983. Koch promised "the most brutal investigation possible" but tarnished his public image when it was discovered that he had not disclosed a back-dated loan agreement the party made. His party and its coalition partner, the
FDP, ensured that he survived a vote of no confidence, despite the outrage in the media and the public over this affair.
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Homepage of Roland Koch
