Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Election of the Bundestag Presidium
AfD starts a new attempt for vice-posts
Each parliamentary group in the Bundestag should be represented on the Presidium by a vice-president. It’s in the rules of procedure. But none of the previous AfD candidates get a majority. The right-wing populists are trying this time with a Thuringian.
The AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag has agreed on a candidate for the office of Bundestag Vice President. The Thuringian MP Michael Kaufmann will run for the position, said the parliamentary group. In the federal election, Kaufmann won the direct mandate in the constituency of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt – Saale-Holzland-Kreis – Saale-Orla-Kreis. The engineer with a doctorate is currently still a member of parliament and vice-president in the Thuringian state parliament.
In the legislative period that was coming to an end, the AfD was not represented in the Bundestag Presidium. All six candidates of the parliamentary group for the vice post failed in several ballots. According to the Bundestag’s rules of procedure, each parliamentary group is entitled to at least one seat on the parliamentary presidium. The presidium members are, however, elected by the MPs and they are free to decide how they vote. The parliamentarians often stated that they did not want to be represented externally by the AfD in this office. The President of the Bundestag is the second man in the state after the Federal President – and thus one of the highest representatives of the country.
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble of the CDU said in the summer that a parliamentary group had no legal right to the office of Bundestag Vice-President. There was only an “agreement” that each parliamentary group could propose a candidate, so Schäuble’s reading of the rules of procedure. Then the following applies: “Only whoever receives the majority of the members of the Bundestag votes in a secret ballot becomes vice-president.” And if you don’t get it, you won’t become Vice President. The AfD took their concerns to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. However, the court rejected the party’s urgent application.
Stephan Brandner, chairman of the Thuringian regional group of the AfD in the Bundestag, was nevertheless optimistic about the new party candidate. “An AfD MP who had even won the trust of a left-wing prime minister and was able to convince him so that he elected him will certainly be able to win the necessary majorities in the Bundestag,” said Brandner, referring to Kaufmann’s office in Thuringia Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow from the left.
New Bundestag meets on Tuesday
The new parliamentary presidium will be elected in the constituent session on Tuesday next week. For the Greens, the former Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth wants to continue to hold office, as the “Augsburger Allgemeine” reported. She therefore sent a letter of application to the other members of the Green parliamentary group.
Traditionally, the post of President of the Bundestag is occupied by the largest parliamentary group – after the Bundestag elections, that is now the SPD. The Social Democrats have not yet named a candidate. The SPD women are urging women to fill the top post. According to information from the AFP news agency, the personnel in the group should be clarified before the end of this week.