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Bärbel Bas is the third woman to head Parliament
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
The parliament in Berlin has elected Bärbel Bas as the new President of the Bundestag.
With 576 of 724 votes cast, the SPD politician was voted into office as the third woman in history at the constituent session of the new Bundestag.
90 MPs voted against Bas, 58 abstained.
The health politician replaces Wolfgang Schäuble and now has the second highest office in Germany.
Traditionally, the largest parliamentary group provides the president, which is the SPD in the new parliament.
The trained personnel manager Bas has been in the Bundestag since 2009.
For several years she was the parliamentary director of her group.
Since September 2019 she has been deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group and responsible for health, education and research as well as petitions.
She was a member of the health committee and, as the SPD parliamentary group vice-president, discussed the care reform with the Union.
Social democratic women campaigned for Bas
In the federal election at the end of September, Bas defended her direct mandate in the Duisburg I constituency and won 40.3 percent of the vote - almost twice as many as her CDU competitor.
Bas is only the third woman at the head of parliament, after Annemarie Renger (SPD, 1972 to 1976) and Rita Süssmuth (CDU, 1988 to 1998).
Initially, the SPD parliamentary group leader, Rolf Mützenich, was the favorite for the post of vice president.
In particular, social democratic women, but also the German Women's Council and the sociologist Jutta Allmendinger, had called for the office to be occupied by women.
The main reason for the debate was the prospect that otherwise the five highest state offices could be occupied by men: Federal President, Bundestag President, Federal Chancellor, Federal Council President and President of the Federal Constitutional Court.
Deputy election in the afternoon
During the constituent session of the Bundestag, Bas' deputy will be elected in the afternoon.
Aydan Özoguz is a candidate from her own party.
The Greens MP Claudia Roth and the FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki, who have already served on the Bundestag Presidium, are also applying for a vice position.
Petra Pau (left) should also be represented in the Vizeriege again.
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.
It is unclear whether the AfD will manage to fill the vice-presidential post this time - but the chances are slim.
In the past period, none of the six personnel proposals from their ranks had been enough for a majority in parliament.
This time the AfD sends the Thuringian MP Michael Kaufmann into the race.
Kaufmann was previously Vice President of the Erfurt Landtag.
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