 During that time, she unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in 2015; the post instead went to Thomas Sternberg.In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2017 federal elections, Flachsbarth was part of the working group on agriculture, led by Julia Klöckner, Christian Schmidt and Anke Rehlinger.With the formation of the fourth "Grand Coalition" under Merkel in 2018, she became – alongside Norbert Barthle – one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, this time under the leadership of minister Gerd Müller.