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Merkel leaves the constituent session of the Bundestag
Photo: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS
With the constitution of the new Bundestag, the term of office of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers officially ends.
This is regulated in Article 69 of the Basic Law.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to hand over the certificates of discharge to the cabinet members of the Union and SPD on Tuesday afternoon.
The Merkel government will continue to carry out official business until the new cabinet has been appointed and sworn in.
According to the current planning of the SPD, Greens and FDP, this should happen in the week from December 6th.
That means Germany is expected to have a caretaker government for around six weeks.
In principle, their competencies remain largely unchanged.
A caretaker government can still introduce laws to the Bundestag and even submit a draft budget.
However, it no longer has a coalition in the Bundestag behind it that would adopt these drafts.
However, ministers can still issue ordinances and administrative regulations.
However, some things are no longer possible: The Executive Chancellor cannot ask a question of confidence.
A vote of no confidence by the newly elected Bundestag against a managing chancellor is also excluded.
The executive head of government is also no longer allowed to exchange ministers.
One calls the "petrification principle".
If a minister leaves for health reasons, his duties are taken over by other members of the government.
In general, the greatest possible political restraint applies to a managing government.
There is consensus that she should no longer make decisions that bind a successor government.
This also applies to foreign policy.
Merkel still has foreign policy appointments
However, Chancellor Merkel still has two important foreign policy deadlines ahead of her.
On Saturday she will travel to the G20 summit in Rome, which will focus on climate protection, fighting pandemics and cushioning the economic consequences of corona.
Merkel (CDU), however, has her finance minister and likely successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) with her as a kind of “watchdog”.
At the beginning of next week, Merkel will speak for three minutes at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
There she will not say anything that is not in agreement with the three parties that are currently negotiating a coalition agreement.
Theoretically, the executive cabinet can rule for several months.
There is no deadline within which a new Federal Chancellor has to be elected by the Bundestag.
The longest period with an executive government came after the 2017 election. It lasted from October 24, 2017 to March 14, 2018, almost five months.
mfh / dpa