Cem Özdemir (; ; born 21 December 1965) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2026. He served as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz from December 2021 to May 2025. From November 2024 to May 2025 he additionally served as Federal Minister of Education and Research, making him the first federal minister in Germany with Circassian ancestry. After his party's victory in the 2026 Baden-Württemberg state election, he became minister-president of this state. Özdemir became the first Minister-President of Turkish background.
Between 2008 and 2018, Özdemir co-chaired The Greens together with Claudia Roth and later Simone Peter. He has been a Member of the German Bundestag since 2013, having previously served from 1994 to 2002, when he became one of the first two Bundestag members of Circassian descent. From 2004 to 2009 he served as a Member of the European Parliament. In the 2017 federal election Özdemir and Katrin Göring-Eckardt ran jointly as The Greens’ lead candidates.
Early life Özdemir was born in Urach, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. His father Abdullah Özdemir (died 2015) came from the town of Pazar in the Turkish province of Tokat and belonged to the Circassian minority in Turkey. He immigrated to Germany as a Gastarbeiter ("guest worker") in 1963 and worked in a textile factory in the Black Forest. Özdemir's mother Nihal (died 2021) came to Germany from Istanbul in 1964, and ran her own tailoring shop. Her father was an officer in the Turkish War of Independence. In 1983 Özdemir and his parents acquired German citizenship.
After completing secondary school Realschule in Urach, Özdemir completed an apprenticeship, becoming an early childhood educator. He later studied social pedagogy at the Evangelical University of Applied Science in Reutlingen (now the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg), graduating in 1994. While studying, he worked as an educator and a freelance journalist.
Özdemir describes himself as a "secular Muslim"Spiegel Online, 15 October 2008: A Turk at the Top . and was married to Argentine journalist Pía María Castro. They have two children: a son and a daughter. In November 2023 the couple announced that they had separated. Özdemir's partner since 2024 is the Canadian specialist for environmental and human rights issues, Flavia Zaka. The couple married on 14 February 2026 in Tübingen with the Tübingen mayor Boris Palmer presiding. Özdemir is a vegetarian.Angelika Hellemann, Daniel Peters and Niels Starnick (25 February 2017), Grünen-Chef im Interview: Özdemir geht auf Schulz los Bild am Sonntag.
Political career Beginnings Özdemir has been a member of the Green Party since 1981, originally in the district chapter of Ludwigsburg. Between 1989 and 1994 he was a member in the State Executive () of the Green Party in Baden-Württemberg. During that time he was one of the founding members of , an alliance of (locals), as opposed to the German word (foreigners).
Member of the German Bundestag, 1994–2002 From 1994 until 2002, Özdemir was a member of the German Bundestag; along with Leyla Onur of the Social Democrats, he was the first person of either Turkish or Circassian descent ever elected to the country's federal parliament.Arena Profile: Cem Özdemir Politico.Tony Czuczka (30 September 2010), Turks in Germany Bridge Two Worlds as Anti-Immigrant Voices Spark Debate Bloomberg News. From 1998 until 2002, he was a member of the Committee on Home Affairs and served as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on this issue. In this capacity, he advocated for reforms to Germany's citizenship laws.Cem Özdemir Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America, press release of 25 January 2013. In addition, he was the chairman of the German-Turkish Parliamentary Friendship Group. (See list of the German Parliamentary Friendship Groups and the pages from the German Bundestag website that describes their purpose Deutscher Bundestag - Weltweit vernetzt - die Parlamentariergruppen and their membership as at January 2024 .
In 1999, nine months after the Greens for the first time joined a German federal government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Özdemir was among 40 younger party members of the self-described "youth of the second generation" who declared in a controversial manifesto "[that] we cannot and will not idly watch the moralizing know-it-alls in our party from the founding generation" around Jürgen Trittin.Edmund L. Andrews (7 July 1999), Old Greens In Germany Challenged By Upstarts The New York Times.
In 2002, Özdemir was accused of violating parliamentary regulations for retaining "Miles & More" frequent-flier miles accrued during official travel as a member of the Bundestag for personal use.Desmond Butler (2 August 2002), Scandal Over Frequent-Flier Miles Shakes Up German Politics The New York Times. He was also criticised for having taken out a credit with Moritz Hunzinger, a German PR consultant and lobbyist, in order to overcome personal financial issues. This affair was also associated with Rudolf Scharping, former German Minister of Defence (1998–2002). Subsequently, Özdemir resigned as spokesman for domestic affairs and as a member of the Bundestag.
In 2003, Özdemir joined the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, D.C., and Brussels as a Transatlantic Fellow. During his fellowship he gave various speeches and brown bag lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on the issue of Turkey and Europe. He also researched on the ways that minority groups in the United States and Europe organize themselves politically.
Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2009
From 2004 until 2009, Özdemir was a Member of the European Parliament in the parliamentary group The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA). During that time he served as the group's spokesperson on foreign policy and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET). In addition, he served as the European Parliament's rapporteur on Central Asia and as vice chair of the Permanent Ad Hoc Delegation for Relations with Iraq.
Between 2006 and 2007, Özdemir also served as vice president of the "CIA Committee" (Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners).
Co-chair of the Green Party, 2009–2013 On 2 June 2008, Özdemir announced his candidacy as co-chair of his party. Özdemir's rival candidate was Volker Ratzmann, leader of the Green parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives, who eventually withdrew his candidacy on 4 September 2008 for personal reasons.Ulrike Winkelmann (4 September 2008), Ratzmann will Grünenvorsitz nicht: Papa statt Parteichef Die Tageszeitung.
In the run-up to the party co-chair elections, Özdemir also ran for a promising party list position for the 2009 German elections at the federal state party conference of Baden-Württemberg. In two separate runs he lost to his respective direct opponents. Nevertheless, Özdemir adhered to his candidacy for the party chairmanship.
Since 15 November 2008, Özdemir has been one of two co-chairs of Alliance 90/The Greens.Ein Realo für die deutschen Grünen Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 17 November 2008. He received 79.2 percent of the delegate votes.
In the 2009 elections, Özdemir was not elected to the Bundestag. As a candidate in the constituency of Stuttgart I, which covers south Stuttgart he polled 29.9%, but lost to Stefan Kaufmann, the candidate of the CDU.
Member of the German Bundestag, 2013–2025 Özdemir re-entered the Bundestag as a result of the 2013 elections.Florian Gathmann (19 September 2013), Grünen-Chef will Stuttgarter Direktmandat: Özdemirs größte Chance Der Spiegel. He served as deputy chairman of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group. In 2017, Özdemir ran for the male top candidacy of the Greens in the subsequent federal election and narrowly won the party membership election over Schleswig-Holstein Deputy Minister-President Robert Habeck and Bundestag parliamentary leader Anton Hofreiter by only 75 votes. He led the Greens into the federal election alongside parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt. Following the election, the Greens were first expected to form a government with the CDU and the FDP, in which Özdemir was widely expected to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, when the FDP abruptly ended the negotiations, this fell apart. Özdemir had already declared not to stand for reelection as party leader (with Robert Habeck succeeding him), and the parliamentary leadership had been reelected directly after the federal election, so there was no leadership post left for him. Instead, from 2018 until 2021, he chaired the Bundestag Committee on Transport. Nevertheless, Özdemir remained one of the most popular politicians of the country and at times even was the most popular politician, placed before Angela Merkel.
In September 2019, Özdemir unsuccessfully challenged incumbents Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreiter at the middle of the legislative term and announced his candidacy to co-chair the Green Party's parliamentary group, together with Kirsten Kappert-Gonther. Following the announcement of Fritz Kuhn to not seek re-election as Mayor of Stuttgart in 2020, Özdemir was widely considered a potential successor. Shortly after, he decided not to run for the position.Fritz Kuhn tritt nicht mehr an: Cem Özdemir will nicht für Stuttgarter OB-Amt kandidieren Stuttgarter Zeitung, 7 January 2020. In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann following the 2021 state elections, Özdemir was a member of the working group on economic affairs, labor and innovation.Koalitionsverhandlungen: Arbeitsgruppen Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Baden-Württemberg, press release of 13 April 2021.Koalitionsverhandlungen: Arbeitsgruppen CDU Baden-Württemberg, press release of 13 April 2021.
In May 2021, several months ahead of the national elections, various media outlets reported that Özdemir had been late to declare to the German Parliament's administration a total of €20,580 in additional income he had received over the course of five years – 2014 through 2018 – in his capacity as leader of the Green Party.Kevin Hagen and Jonas Schaible (19 May 2021), Der Spiegel.Stefan Braun (21 May 2021), Grüne: Staunen und Ärgern Süddeutsche Zeitung. In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Özdemir led his party's delegation in the working group on economic policy; his co-chairs from the other parties were Carsten Schneider and Michael Theurer.Andreas Apetz and Thomas Kaspar (22 October 2021), Ampel-Koalition: Alle Verantwortlichen, AGs und Themen im Überblick Frankfurter Rundschau.
Minister of Food and Agriculture, 2021–2025
Following the 2021 German federal election, the Greens entered government as part of a traffic light coalition led by Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Özdemir was sworn in as Food and Agriculture Minister on 8 December 2021. The appointment of Özdemir, instead of outgoing parliamentary leader and biologist Anton Hofreiter by the party leaders Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock came after infighting within the party over the Agriculture Ministry, and was seen as somewhat surprising, since he had no prior experience in agriculture policy and was considered to be a moderate within the Greens, while Hofreiter was left-leaning.Laurenz Gehrke (2 December 2021), Politico. However, Özdemir had also been one of the most prominent and popular politicians in Germany for several years.
Özdemir was the only minister in the Scholz cabinet to come from an ethnic minority,Natalie Steiwer (December 2021), Les Echos. and the first government minister of Turkish descent in Germany's history.