Beyond these discussions, Grütters has significant responsibility for the successful state funding of the Barenboim–Said Akademie in Berlin. In the negotiations to form another coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Grütters led the working group on cultural affairs and media, alongside Dorothee Bär and Michael Roth. In February 2018, Merkel announced that she would take over Grütters for a second term in her fourth cabinet. In June 2017, Grütters voted against her parliamentary group’s majority and in favor of Germany’s introduction of same-sex marriage. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2018, Grütters publicly endorsed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair. Official