Close employee of Baerbock becomes a lobbyist for RWE
Annalena Barbock in October 2022 at the Federal Party Congress of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen
Source: dpa / Kay Nietfeld
According to information from WELT, former Secretary of State Barbock’s office director will go to RWE as a representative of the group. The company has often been seen as the red cloth by environmentalists.
eTitus Riebahn, who was an office manager in the MPs’ office and most recently worked in the minister’s office at the Foreign Ministry, is head of lobbying at the energy company in Berlin. RWE on March 1, 2023. This was confirmed by WELT from the company’s circles.
Barbuk had brought Rebhan from her office in the Bundestag. Previously he worked for years in the office of green energy politician Oliver Krecher, who has served as Minister for the Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia since June 2022. With Rebhann, the RWE group based in Essen in the Ruhr region can rely not only on Rebhann’s connections in the federal government, but also in The black and green state government in Dusseldorf. However, he should not intentionally do any pressure with the State Department.
According to reports, Rebhann will take over the management of the group’s representative office in Berlin. RWE announced this position in the summer. According to the information from WELT, Rebhann applied for the position himself. According to reports, the group is now counting on his contribution to the “turnaround” of the company. Riebahn was released from his previous post at the German Foreign Ministry in mid-October. The German Foreign Ministry confirmed that Riebahn has no “professional contacts” with RWE there and “has not been involved in any projects directly related to RWE”.
Opinion formation support
According to the job posting for the group’s representative office, central tasks there include “accompanying political opinion formation processes on key energy-related issues and positioning RWE as a competent partner in the field of renewable energies”.
The RWE group is actually quite controversial among environmentalists because of its role in lignite mining in NRW. The group is also the operator of the Emsland nuclear power plant in Lingen. It’s one of three reactors that should effectively shut down at the end of the year, but in accordance with the will of the Traffic Light Coalition, work must now continue through mid-April. RWE resigned after the last Federal elections Increase investments in renewable energies.
RWE’s Emsland Nuclear Power Plant
Source: dpa / Sina Schuldt
In the spring, he already caused controversy over the joining of PR and lobbying agency MSL, Danielle Holevlich, husband of Annalena Barbock, as a partner.
revision: In the first version, we erroneously wrote that Rayban was the director of the office of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have corrected this.
