Education
University of Bielefeld.
University of Bielefeld.
In the Schleswig-Holstein state election 2012 Albig became the Minister-President of state Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. From 2009 to 2012 Albig was the Lord Mayor of Kiel, the state capital of Schleswig-Holstein. Albig was a Social Democratic Party of Germany delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2012.
Torsten Albig was appointed candidate for Minister-President, representing his party, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, in 2011 after a member"s decision.
The three parties have a narrow majority in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein with 35 of 69 seats. At the appointment in parliament though, he got 37 of 69 possible votes.
The new-formed government of Schleswig-Holstein consisting of Social Democratic Party of Germany, The Green Party and the SSW has never been seen before in German history. Albig succeeded Peter Harry Carstensen in the position as Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein.
In 2015, Albig – alongside First Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz – negotiated a restructuring deal with the European Commission that allowed the German regional lender HSH Nordbank to offload 6.2 billion euros in troubled assets – mainly non-performing ship loans – onto its government majority owners and avoid being shut down, saving around 2,500 jobs.
At the election in 2012, Social Democratic Party of Germany achieved 30.4% of the votes, not enough to beat the ruling Christian Democratic Union that got 30.8% of the popular vote. Social Democratic Party of Germany and Christian Democratic Union achieved 22 seats each, and the election result made it possible for Albig to form a coalition government with the participation of the Green Party and the SSW, which is a regional party representing the Danish and Frisian minorities.
In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel"s Christian Democrats (Christian Democratic Union together with the Bavarian Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union)) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany following the 2013 federal elections, Albig was part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany delegation in the working group on transport, building and infrastructure, led by Peter Ramsauer and Florian Pronold.
