Traffic light coalition changes the seating arrangement in the Bundestag - Union must sit next to AfD

Created: 12/16/2021, 05:39 PM

From: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

The traffic light coalition has pushed through a change in the seating arrangements in the Bundestag requested by the FDP.

© Michael Kappeler / dpa

The traffic light coalition has implemented a change in the seating arrangements in the Bundestag.

The governing parties will therefore sit next to each other and the Union next to the AfD.

Munich - The FDP has been sitting on the right edge of the Bundestag for 70 years.

Now the Liberals apparently thought "This is the end of it" and submitted a request for a change in the seating arrangement in Parliament.

Today

it was debated and enforced by the traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.

In addition, the left also voted for it.

The demands of the Liberals and the change in the seating arrangement decided today, however, were not at all well received by the Union.

From now on, the Union faction has to swap places with the FDP and sit next to the AfD.

The Union turned against the project in the vote, the AfD abstained.

Bundestag seating order changed: Union moves next to the AfD - accuses “expression of disrespect”

So far, as seen from the Bundestag presidium, the AfD parliamentary group sits on the far right in the plenum, next to it the FDP, followed by the Union, the Greens, the SPD and the Left. The FDP wanted to swap places with the Union after its return to parliament in 2017. The CDU and CSU rejected it at the time and did not want it this time either.

The parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), accused the Ampel coalition of an "expression of disrespect".

The SPD, Greens and FDP wanted to set up a “monolithic government bloc” in the Bundestag and “push us to the edge of the plenary”.

That is not okay, so Frei.

The approach of the “traffic light” is “a sign of great weakness” and “a sign of small-mindedness,” said the CDU politician.

He also criticized the fact that the coalition factions originally wanted to vote on the new seating arrangement without a debate.

"We won't let them get away with doing that about the cold kitchen," he emphasized.

Traffic light party FDP will sit next to coalition partners in the future - "we are a force of the political center"

FDP parliamentary director Johannes Vogel argued in his speech with the “left-right scheme of politics”, according to which the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag are obviously sorted.

There is only "one anomaly", namely that the FDP is not in the middle.

"We are a middle-class force and that is why we belong in the middle of the plenary," he said.

Vogel returned the accusation of disrespect to the Union.

This has enforced in the Hessian and Bavarian state parliaments that the FDP parliamentary groups would have to sit elsewhere against their will.

"Don't riot about the arrogance of power," Vogel called out to the CDU / CSU.

He received support from the Left Parliamentary Secretary Jan Korte.

This attested the Union “tearfulness” and “unparalleled cryingness”.

Traffic light is “coalition of the middle”: SPD defends new seating arrangements in the Bundestag - AfD complains against the FDP

SPD parliamentary director Katja Mast judged that the new seating arrangement made sense because the “traffic light” was a “coalition of the center”.

Green parliamentary director Irene Mihalic said that the FDP's wish for a change was just as understandable for her as the Union's wish to the contrary.

The Green Group now wants to show solidarity with its coalition partner.

However, she was "unhappy" about the debate, said Mihalic.

She wonders how this affects the people in the country, while the Bundestag actually has to devote all its might to "multiple problems".

The AfD MP Stephan Brandner described the discussion about the seating arrangement as an "unworthy spectacle".

In the Bundestag important debates belonged "and not such a puppet theater".

The FDP insulted Brandner as "disgusting", as "blasé types" and as "green-left-submissive post-grabbing troops", next to whom his faction no longer wants to sit.