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The 20th Bundestag has officially started work in the Reichstag in Berlin
Photo: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance / dpa
The 20th German Bundestag has started work: Wolfgang Schäuble, the member with the longest membership in parliament, opened the session 30 days after the Bundestag elections as old-age president.
Initially, the AfD's application to have Alexander Gauland, the oldest member of the Bundestag, hold the meeting was rejected.
Since the last legislature, it is no longer the oldest member of parliament that is the eldest member, but the one with the longest term of service in parliament.
So it remains that the longest serving member remains the age president, so Schäuble after the rejected AfD application.
That would be himself. He then welcomed all the guests in the official gallery, including the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Schäuble is being replaced as President of Parliament today, and the SPD politician Bärbel Bas is to become the new chairman of parliament.
Another item on the agenda is the election of the Bundestag Vice-Presidents.
However, it is planned that Parliament will first vote on its rules of procedure.
It regulates parliamentary operations.
This ranges from the powers of the President to the imposition of sanctions such as calls to order and a fine or the exclusion of MPs from meetings.
Then the election of the Bundestag Presidium is due.
The SPD, as the strongest parliamentary group, has nominated Bas as President of Parliament.
Your choice is considered certain, as the other parliamentary groups usually support this personnel decision.
Bas will take over the chairmanship of the meeting if they are elected.
Steinmeier distributes discharge certificates
Aydan Özoguz from the SPD is available for election as Bas' deputy. The Greens MP Claudia Roth and the FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki, who have already acted as Schäuble deputies, are also applying for this post. Petra Pau should also be represented again in the Vizeriege for the left.
The Union had only decided on Monday who should represent the parliamentary group in the future as Bas deputy in the Bundestag. In the end there was a compromise solution. Yvonne Magwas, chairwoman of the group of women in the Union parliamentary group since 2018, will run for office. Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters and the Commissioner for Integration Annette Widmann-Mauz had previously expressed interest, as had the previous Parliamentary Secretary Michael Grosse-Brömer and CSU man Hans-Peter Friedrich, previously Vice President. They have all now waived in favor of Magwas.
The AfD candidate Michael Kaufmann has the worst prospects of being elected to office. In the 19th electoral term, the AfD put six of its MPs for the post of Vice President. They all failed in three ballots each because the members of the other parliamentary groups refused to approve them.
736 members belong to the new Bundestag.
206 from the SPD, followed by the CDU / CSU with 197, the Greens with 118, the FDP with 92, the AfD with 82 and the Left with 39 MPs.
There are also two non-attached MPs: Stefan Seidler from the Südschleswigschen Voters' Association and the AfD politician Matthias Helferich.
279 members are new in the Bundestag.
The proportion of women rose slightly from 31 percent in the last legislative period to around 35 percent and is still around one and a half percentage points lower than after the 2013 election.
The meeting takes place under 3G conditions.
Only MPs who have been vaccinated, recovered or freshly tested have access to the actual plenary chamber.
Anyone who cannot or does not want to prove this can at best take a seat in a spectator stand provided for this purpose.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wants to follow the constituent session of the new Bundestag in the official gallery.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who did not sit on the government bench during the meeting, but in the official gallery, and her cabinet will drive to Bellevue Palace after the meeting, where Steinmeier will hand over her dismissal certificates.
Since the new government is not yet in place, Steinmeier will then instruct Merkel to continue the official business until a successor is appointed.
The government thus remains in office.
svs / dpa
