The scene is so unusual that it has split.
A German deputy kept his professional commitments in the Bundestag with an astonishing collaborator: his 15-month-old son, comfortably installed on his lap.
And if the little boy did not stand out for his cries - we see him playing calmly with his small car - his appearance did not go unnoticed.
"Green parliamentarian Anton Hofreiter led the discussion of his European Union committee not by videoconference [as normalized by the Covid-19 pandemic] but indeed face-to-face," reports the
Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin
.
Read alsoIn video, Elon Musk participates in a SpaceX meeting with his 1 and a half year old son on his knees
Immediately shared on social networks by a collaborator of the member of the Alliance 90-Les Verts, the snapshot went viral, raising questions about the lack of daycare centers in Germany but also worrying about a form of instrumentalization of children.
Some see it as a communication operation, others a political gesture, still others simply an involved father.
“The most vocal criticize Hofreiter for putting on a show, others – such as Greens manager Katharina Schulze – argue that he must have had good reasons and that he has already been seen several times with his son in the corridors of the Bundestag”, we read in the columns of the German magazine.
Whatever the reasons which led Anton Hofreiter to take his child to his place of work, the situation which remains exceptional has been welcomed by several internet users.
“The MP is celebrated, at least by some, as a super dad, simply for fulfilling his duties as a working dad.”
But there is nothing abnormal about a parent working and caring for their children at the same time because "in the vast majority of cases, they are mothers".
Some have thus recalled that when the elected Madeleine Henfling had presented herself in session with her baby, the reception was not the same as four years ago.
The Greens MP had been expelled from the Thuringian Parliament (central Germany) because she was carrying her newborn baby to the plenary hall.
The German magazine believes that the media coverage of Anton Hofreiter can however have positive consequences.
“We know the power of the image and this could contribute to reducing the inequality of treatment between men and women, fathers and mothers in our society”, concludes the
SZ Magazin.