Özdemir succeeds his party colleague Winfried Kretschmann, who has held the position for 15 years. The coalition of the Greens and CDU commands a majority with 112 votes in the Landtag, following a narrow victory in the recent state elections where both parties secured 56 seats each. The AfD proposed CDU leader Hagel as a rival candidate, but he declined. The opposition is comprised of the AfD and SPD, while the FDP and Die Linke failed to enter the parliament. Özdemir, born in 1965 to Turkish immigrants, previously served as Federal Minister of Agriculture in the federal government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.