Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
Scraped-up Bundestag for the election
“Touched by Hanseatic standards”
From Sebastian Huld
Now he is Chancellor: Olaf Scholz is elected by the Bundestag and appointed by the Federal President. Many MPs are moved by the moment, not just those at the traffic lights. The new head of government is also showing emotion.
Wait, do nothing but chat for more than an hour. Under other circumstances this Wednesday morning would not have been to Olaf Scholz’s taste. But the institutions of democracy are not trimmed for efficiency, but for legitimation and representation. It just takes until more than 700 MPs have cast their votes and these are counted. And Scholz chats. Presumably about important things, with his designated health minister Karl Lauterbach or with some of the assembled prime ministers, whom he will meet on Thursday for the next federal-state pandemic round.
He also chats about probably less important things, for example when the notoriously talkative left-wing MP Gregor Gysi talks to him for a long time. Finally, at 10.15 a.m., the wait is over; 23 years in politics and a long-term seemingly hopeless federal election campaign are drawing to a climax in Scholz’s vita: the result will be announced.
Only the AfD is served
It’s enough, as expected. The fact that only 395 of 416 votes in the parliamentary group come together is explained by the traffic light parliamentary groups, in part with sick leave. Nevertheless, there must also be traffic light deputies among the no-sayers and abstainers. The fact that the SPD, the Greens and the FDP together are 67 votes above the majority of 369 members leaves the coalition room for deviating voting behavior in the future, if there is a creak in a parliamentary group. Scholz’s mood does not at least noticeably detract from it. The 63-year-old answered the question of whether he would accept the election with a strong “yes” without even using the microphone in the hall.
This is followed by strong and long-lasting applause. Even the members of the Union do not show any nakedness and bravely bear with them what is actually a bitter day. Group leader Ralph Brinkhaus is the second well-wisher, while the Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, who lost out in the election campaign, is the third. In the morning, many Union MPs said in social media and in press conferences that such a peaceful, democratic change of power is a feast day for them too, despite everything. The left also applauds. The AfD, on the other hand, does not clap. The congratulations to Scholz from parliamentary group chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are short and sweet.
Completely new greens
The mood in the new government factions is all the better. Even the loud laughter when Bundestag President Bärbel Bas exceptionally allows photos to be taken in plenary – “Don’t be too early, that’s just for today.” – announces the lively mood. The many beaming faces unfortunately remain hidden under the masks. The presumably new Greens chairman Ricarda Lang says in an interview with ntv.de that this is a “special moment for this country”. A “politics of chasing after necessities” ends. “I don’t want to use the word historical 500 times,” says Lang, only to finally do it.
It is a special day for the Greens in two ways: of all three parties, they have waited the longest to be allowed to govern again. At the same time, your group brings together the majority of the new MEPs who are experiencing everything for the first time anyway. The many young people in the ranks of the Greens and the SPD sometimes wander just as haphazardly through the confusing corridors of the Bundestag as the numerous reporters who otherwise do not appear here. Appearances also reveal that the Greens are a different party than the one that entered a federal government for the first time in 1998. Almost all men wear jackets, the tie-refusers Robert Habeck and Jürgen Trittin wear them today.
Merkel has to get up three times
The good mood in the plenary does not spill over to the upper echelons. One is reserved for AfD MPs who refuse to provide 3G evidence. The two grandstands are relatively calm. In the first and second row, Scholz’s parents, his wife Britta Ernst and his two brothers follow the election. Gerhard Schröder and his wife as well as the outgoing SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans, who is not a member of parliament, are also sitting here.
The next stand belongs to the dignitaries. Angela Merkel appeared in black, she doesn’t seem like a mourner. She chats with the former Bundestag Presidents Norbert Lammert, Wolfgang Thierse and Rita Süssmuth as well as the former Federal President Joachim Gauck, who are all sitting with her in the front row. Behind them the designated ministers Nancy Faeser, Anne Spiegel, Christine Lambrecht and Klara Geywitz, also without a parliamentary mandate. When Merkel follows the plenary session, her hands form the famous diamond. When Bundestag President Bas greeted her, the applause was so long that the former Chancellor felt compelled to get up three times.
Scholz clings to himself
The upcoming governing mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, is also in a place of honor. She was very moved, she reported afterwards to ntv.de. “It is a very special moment when a social democratic chancellor is elected.” SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said to ntv.de: “This is an emotional day, I was very touched.” And Scholz? “You can tell that it affects him very much. He is very touched by Hanseatic standards,” said the upcoming SPD chairman, Klingbeil, who gives him a look inside his chancellor.
After his appointment by the Federal President, he takes a seat on the government bench at 12 o’clock sharp, lonely for the time being, without his ministers who have not yet been appointed. Applause breaks out again. You just have to assume that Scholz grins broadly behind the mask. Both hands grip each other very tightly, Scholz clings to himself. Then he swears his oath of office in a firm voice, whereby Scholz, as expected, leaves God outside. A new group of well-wishers arises, but now with cell phones instead of flowers. The MPs want selfies. It’s a special day in the Bundestag.