Saskia Esken


Saskia Esken is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany who has been serving as co-leader of the party since being elected as co-leader on December 2019. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013 and is an IT specialist.

Early life and career

Esken was born 1961 in Stuttgart and became an IT specialist.

Political career

Esken entered the SPD in 1990. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 2013 elections, representing Calw. In parliament, she has since been serving on the Committee on the Digital Agenda. In this capacity, she is her parliamentary group's rapporteur on privacy, IT security, digital education, and eGovernment.
From 2013 until 2017, Esken was a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment as well as of the Parliamentary Advisory Board on Sustainable Development. Following the 2017 elections, she also joined the Committee on Internal Affairs.
Within her parliamentary group, Esken is part of working groups on digital issues and on consumer protection as well as of the Parlamentarische Linke, an association of left-wing MPs.
In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Esken was part of the working group on digital policy, led Helge Braun, Dorothee Bär, and Lars Klingbeil.
Together with Norbert Walter-Borjans, Esken announced her candidacy for the 2019 Social Democratic Party of Germany leadership election. The November 2019 run-off was won by Esken and Walter-Borjans.

Political positions

In March 2019, Esken opposed the European Union's Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market and its article 13.
Also in 2019, Esken called repeatedly for a renegotiation of the 2018 coalition treaty on issues such as government spending and climate change policy.

Other activities

Regulatory agencies