Germany's Scholz picks new defense chief

Interior Minister of Lower Saxony Boris Pistorius will become the new German Minister of Defense, replacing Christine Lambrecht, who resigned on Monday.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has chosen a man who is rather unknown abroad, the German broadcaster DW reported on Tuesday, saying that Pistorius held the interior minister post for nine years and was seen as someone who gets things done.

"I am delighted that Boris Pistorius, an outstanding politician in our country, will become the new defense minister. With his experience, competence and assertiveness as well as his big heart, he is exactly the right person for the Bundeswehr in the #turnaround," Scholz said in a tweet in German on Tuesday.

Since 2013, Pistorius, now 62, has been dealing with internal security, cybercrime, migration, and sports in the SPD-led state government in Lower Saxony. He joined the center-left Social Democratic Party, or SPD, at the age of 16 and later completed his military service in 1980/81.

Scholz's announcement came just a day after Lambrecht formally resigned on Monday, days before a NATO defense ministers meeting on Ukraine.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which coordinates arms supplies to Ukraine, will meet on Friday at the Ramstein Air Base, a US military base in southwestern Germany. The meeting will be hosted by the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Lambrecht, also from the SPD, came under attack for her multiple gaffes in the past year.

The 57-year-old was criticized over a video she posted on Instagram on New Year's Day from the streets of Berlin, where she attempted to recapitulate her experiences of the conflict in Ukraine but was almost drowned out by the noise of fireworks exploding around her.

Members of the opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union, mocked her message and called for her resignation.

She also came under fire a year ago for her announcement that Germany would send 5,000 helmets to Ukraine, when the Ukrainian government was asking for heavy weapons.

German media and politicians also criticized her in May for allowing her son to accompany her on a government helicopter on the way to a family vacation.

"I have today asked the chancellor to dismiss me from the office of the Federal Ministry of Defense," Lambrecht said in a statement on Monday.

Scholz praised Lambrecht for her work trying to usher in reforms at the defense ministry.

"I don't see a change in German policy," former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb told CNN of the change, adding that the German government policy was very much driven by the chancellor and also the foreign minister.

Agencies contributed to this story.

CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels