Franziska Brantner is the woman next to Robert Habeck. The Green State Secretary has a huge task in the Ministry of Economics: She is supposed to solve the raw materials problem in German industry and reduce economic dependence on autocracies. Brantner is considered a tough negotiator – and she likes it. Forging global alliances “is a big chessboard,” she says in the current podcast episode “The Boss – Power is Female.”
She talks to host Simone Menne about political communication. She explains why political speech is sometimes necessary, what is lacking when it comes to communication at traffic lights and why politicians have to be on TikTok. And she tells what it means when a half-sentence from a speech in the Bundestag about the AfD and comedian Dieter Nuhr suddenly escalates into a shitstorm.
Brantner has a daughter with ex-partner Boris Palmer, Tübingen’s controversial mayor. A topic she no longer wants to talk about. She often asks herself: “Does a man get asked these questions even after a separation of more than ten years?” In the podcast she talks to Simone Menne about the intertwining of private life and politics.
Before her position as State Secretary, Franziska Brantner was already in the European Parliament and the German Bundestag. There she noticed how anti-family the job of MPs really is – and founded an initiative together with other politicians to improve the compatibility of politics and family. “We have come one step further,” she says today. “I have the impression that MPs, whether female or male, apologize less often for the fact that they have children and therefore cannot be present all the time.”
“The Boss” host Simone Menne and stern editor Laura Csapó alternately write to you on the topic of female leadership. Analysis, tips and tricks. 14 days, always between podcast episodes. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
At “The Boss – Power is Female” top women talk among themselves: host and multi-supervisory board member Simone Menne (including BMW, Deutsche Post DHL, Henkel) meets bosses from all areas of society to talk to them about their lives and careers. “Die Boss” appears every fortnight on Wednesdays on stern.de and the stern’s YouTube channel as well as on RTL and all common podcast platforms.
Editor’s note: Stern belongs to RTL Deutschland.