Germany’s interior minister makes risky run for state office

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s interior minister says she plans to run for governor of her home state this fall but to remain the country’s top security official in the meantime. It’s a politically risky course that opponents assailed even before Thursday’s announcement. Nancy Faeser has been interior minister since Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party govening coalition took office in 2021. She leads the local branch of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats in the central state of Hesse, which will elect a new state legislature in October. Germany’s main opposition party in recent days urged her to leave the Cabinet if she ran — arguing that the country’s security isn’t a part-time job at a time of heightened threats.