Stefan Mappus

Stefan Mappus (born 4 April 1966) is a German politician from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 8th Minister President of the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2010 to 2011 and chairman of the CDU Baden-Württemberg from 2009 to 2011. With the March 2011 Baden-Württemberg state election coming up, incumbent Minister President Günther Oettinger in late 2009 was, according to a wiki-leaked diplomatic cable from the United States Embassy in Berlin, "kicked upstairs by CDU leader and Chancellor Angela Merkel as New EU Energy Commissioner in Brussels due to being an unloved lame duck at an important CDU bastion." Mappus took over in February, and by summer polls indicated that his CDU-FDP coalition might lose against a Green-SPD coalition. His tough stance for the major Stuttgart 21 railway reconstruction project, symbolised by bloody eye injuries to an elder activist, Dietrich Wagner, did not help. The Greens won the election, and Mappus announced his resignation of the party chair. Currently, he is a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation.