Career in state politics

Since the 2004 state elections, Rehlinger has been a member of the Landtag of Saarland. In parliament, she was the chairwoman of the committee on European affairs (2008–2009) and of the committee on education, cultural affairs and media (2009–2011). From 2011 until 2012, she was her parliamentary group's deputy chairwoman, under the leadership of chairman Heiko Maas.

Between 2012 and 2014, Rehlinger was state minister of justice, consumer protection and environmental affairs in the government of the minister-president of Saarland Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. In 2014, she succeeded Heiko Maas as deputy minister-president and state minister for economic affairs, first under the leadership of Kramp-Karrenbauer (2014–2018) and later Tobias Hans (2018–2022).^[1] She was the candidate of SPD in 2017 state elections, but lost against Kramp-Karrenbauer and continued her role in the state government instead.

As one of her state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Rehlinger sat on the committee on labour, integration and social policy, the committee on economic affairs and on the committee on transport.

In March 2018, Rehlinger succeeded Heiko Maas as leader of the SPD in Saarland. At a party convention, she was elected with a majority of 94.5 percent.^[2]

Career in national politics

Rehlinger co-chaired the SPD's national conventions in Berlin (2015,^[3] 2017,^[4] 2019)^[5] and Wiesbaden (2018).^[6]

In the negotiations to form a coalition government on the national level following the 2017 federal elections, Rehlinger co-chaired the working group on agriculture. Her counterparts were Julia Klöckner and Christian Schmidt. She was also a member of the working group on transport.

At a SPD national convention in 2019, Rehlinger, with Klara Geywitz, Hubertus Heil, Kevin Kühnert and Serpil Midyatli, was elected as one of the five deputies of the party's co-chairs Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans.^[7]

In the negotiations to form a so-called "traffic light coalition" of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 federal elections, Rehlinger led her party's delegation in the working group on mobility. Her co-chairs from the other parties were Anton Hofreiter and Oliver Luksic.^[8]

Rehlinger was nominated by her party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the president of Germany in 2022.^[9]

In October 2023, Rehlinger joined the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron.^[10]

Regulatory bodies

• Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), member of the advisory board (since 2014)^[11]

Corporate boards

• Landesbank Saar (SaarLB), ex-officio member of the supervisory board^[12]
• VSE AG, ex-officio member of the advisory board

Non-profit organization

• Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018)^[13]
• Franco-German Institute (DFI), member of the board^[14]
• Völklingen Ironworks, ex-officio chairwoman of the supervisory board^[15]
• IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (IG BCE), member^[16]
• German Red Cross, member^[17]