Johann Wadephul is set to become Germany’s new foreign minister, according to information from the Table Media portal released on Sunday.

The portal said 62-year-old Wadephul, from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is to be appointed as the country’s top foreign policy official, replacing Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party.

Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government – made up of his CDU, the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) – is set to take office in early May, with leading ministerial positions expected to be announced on Monday.

The CDU is due to hold a small party conference in Berlin on Monday to approve the coalition agreement, which also still needs the approval of SPD members in an online ballot that ends on Tuesday.

Wadephul, a policy specialist from Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, is set to become the CDU’s first foreign minister in almost 60 years.

He is expected to take the position ahead of Armin Laschet, who was the CDU’s candidate for chancellor in the party’s unsuccessful 2021 election campaign.

The Table Media report also revealed that Karin Prien is to be named the new education minister, while former lawmaker Katherina Reiche is to take the economy and energy portfolio.

A spokesman for the CDU would not confirm the nominations to dpa on Sunday.

In total, the CDU is to hold seven of the 17 Cabinet-level ministerial posts in the new government, including transport, health, family and digitalization.

The SPD is also to hold seven, with party co-leader Lars Klingbeil expected to become finance minister and popular Defence Minister Boris Pistorius set to retain his post.

The party – which also holds the labour, development, justice, construction and environment portfolios – is due to announce its line-up on Wednesday, after the members’ vote concludes.

Three ministries are to go to the CSU, with Alexander Dobrindt seen as the most likely candidate for the Interior Ministry, and the nominees for the space and agriculture portfolios to be announced on Monday.

The three parties reached a coalition agreement earlier this month, weeks after February’s parliamentary elections.