Alois Rainer


Alois Georg Josef Rainer is a German butcher and politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria who has been serving as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Community in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since 2025. He has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria since 2013.

Early life and education

Alois Rainer was born in 1965 and grew up in Haibach in the Bavarian Forest. His father was Alois Rainer senior, a butcher, restauranteur and a politician.
Rainer inherited not only his father's butchery trade, but also his political career. Both began as mayors in the Lower Bavarian community of Haibach, which has a population of 8,000, before becoming members of the Bundestag.
Alois Rainer's older sister Gerda Hasselfeldt was also member of the German Bundestag for 30 years from 1987 to 2017 for CSU.

Political career

Rainer first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2013 German federal election. In parliament, he served on the Budget Committee and the Audit Committee from 2013 to 2019; in this capacity, he was his parliamentary group’s rapporteur on the annual budget of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. From 2019 to 2021 he was a member of the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure, where he is his parliamentary group’s spokesperson. From 2021 to 2025, Rainer chaired the Finance Committee.

Other activities

Upon taking office, Rainer emphasized his desire to ensure less bureaucracy, more freedom, more innovation, and greater social appreciation for agriculture. He did not elaborate on these points. The biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis were not mentioned.