Armin Laschet

Armin Laschet, born in Aachen in 1961, is a German lawyer, journalist and CDU politician. He served as Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2017 to 2021 and as Germany’s representative for cultural affairs under the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation from 2019 to 2021. Earlier, he was a member of the German Bundestag (1994–1998), the European Parliament (1999–2005), and the North Rhine-Westphalian state government (2005–2010). Laschet worked for Bayerisches Fernsehen, among other media outlets, and served as editor-in-chief of the Aachen Church Newspaper. In 2022, Emmanuel Macron appointed him a Commander of the French Legion of Honour.