Julia Klöckner (born 16 December 1972) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2018. Since 2012, she has also been part of the CDU leadership. Klöckner first became known in 1995 when she was chosen as the German Wine Queen (Deutsche Weinkönigin). From 2002 to 2011 she was a member of parliament in the German Bundestag and, from 2009 to February 2011, she was a parliamentary undersecretary in the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. Since 25 September 2010 she has chaired the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU party and, since March 2011, the CDU group in the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state parliament. Since 15 November 2010 she has been on the CDU's national Präsidium (executive committee) and on 4 December 2012 she was elected as one of the Deputy Federal Chairmen and -women of the CDU. In recent years, she has regularly been mentioned by the media as potential successor to Angela Merkel.