Reem Alabali Radovan

Reem Alabali Radovan (, ; born 1 May 1990) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since May 2025.

Alabali Radovan has been a Member of the Bundestag since 2021.

Early life Alabali Radovan was born in Moscow in 1990 to Iraqi Assyrian parents of Chaldean Catholic religious background. Her parents opposed the government of Saddam Hussein, and had moved to the Soviet Union in the 1980s to study engineering. Her father was a fighter of the Peshmerga, and her paternal grandfather, Muhammad Salih Alabali, was an Iraqi resistance leader who had been executed by the Ba'athist government. In 1996, after a brief stop in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the family sought, and received asylum in Germany, settling in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Alabali Radovan completed her school education at the Gymnasium Fridericianum Schwerin. From her parents' involvement with Iraqi politics, Alabali Radovan was inspired to pursue political science and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Free University of Berlin and obtained a master's degree program (distance learning) in Sustainable Development Cooperation at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern.

From June 2012 to July 2014, she worked as a technical staff member at the German Orient Institute and was employed in the field of economic development at the Near and Middle East Association in Berlin — initially as an assistant, later as a country officer.

In May 2015, she returned to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and worked at the Office for Migration and Refugee Affairs of the State Office for Internal Administration of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, specifically at the initial reception center for refugees in Nostorf defeating incumbent Dietrich Monstadt of the CDU. She won with the most first-past-the post votes in the election.

Within her parliamentary group, Alabali Radovan belongs to the Parliamentary Left, a left-wing movement.

On 8 December 2021, the Scholz cabinet appointed Alabali Radovan as Federal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration with the rank of a Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery. From 23 February 2022, she additionally served as the Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Racism, being the first commissioner to hold the post. In 2024, Radovan supported a bill ending a ban on dual-nationality to ease migration and naturalization efforts in Germany proposed by Scholz.

Between April 13th and 14th 2024, Alabali Radovan was elected to the position of Deputy State Chairwoman of the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ahead of the 2025 German federal election, Alabali Radovan was unanimously nominated by the SPD for the candidacy.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition between the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) under the leadership of Friedrich Merz and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) following the 2025 German elections, Alabali Radovan was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on domestic policy, legal affairs, migration and integration, led by Günter Krings, Andrea Lindholz and Dirk Wiese.

In May 2025, Alabali Radovan was elected to the position of Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. She replaced SPD member Svenja Schulze when taking over the position.

In July, she visited South Africa to discuss economic relations between them and Germany, as well as to attend the 2025 G20 Johannesburg summit. She has used her position to prioritize building alliances with the Global South to combat crises.

Other activities International organizations Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2025) World Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2025)

Corporate boards KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (since 2025)

Non-profit organizations of the German Football Association, Member of the Board of Trustees , Member of the Advisory Board

Personal life Alabali Radovan speaks fluent German, Arabic, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, In June 2025, Alabali Radovan decided to drop the hyphen in her last name after a law for double names passed earlier that year. She currently resides in Schwerin and has two younger siblings.