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Unwanted neighbors in the … Parliament


New “headache” for the presidency of the Parliament in the post-Merkel era: the Liberals refuse to sit next to the ethno-populists of the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD).

In all parliaments the order of the parties reflects and symbolizes the political correlations. In the Federal Parliament that emerged from the 2017 elections, the extreme right seats were occupied by the deputies of the party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD), on their left sat the deputies of the Liberals (FDP), while the deputies of the Center appeared in the Center. Christian Democrats (CDU / CSU) and the Greens, leaving the seats in the left wing of the Plenary to the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Left Party (Die Linke). This is exactly what should not be repeated, say the Liberals now and ask them to sit in the Center area, next to the Greens, shifting a little further to the right the colleagues of the Christian parties.

“It is annoying to sit next to AfD,” says the vice president of K.O. of the Liberal Party, Stephen Thomas, in the Augsburger Allgemeine, explains that in the previous parliamentary term, his deputies constantly heard derogatory, cheap or sexist comments from ethno-populists, who probably do not take parliamentary democracy seriously. What’s worse, says Otto Solms, one of the FDP’s most experienced executives, is that anyone who is not in the room, but for example is watching the debate on TV, may be confused and “think that swearing and derogatory comments come from us, not the AfD “. Beyond that, Tomae clarifies, there are “symbolic reasons” for a reshuffle, as “it is clear that the Liberals represent the Center, while the CDU and CSU identify themselves as political forces to the right of the Center.”

Who is more “Center” than the other?

Here things get complicated. Especially in the time of Angela Merkel, but also in the past, the Christian Democrats insisted on being the “political force of the Center”. German publications remind that in the time of the Weimar Republic the liberal forces were divided into supporters of social liberalism and ultra-conservative-liberals, as a result of which a tradition regarding the seats they occupy in the Plenary was not consolidated. From 1949 until today, the position of the FDP on the right of the Christian parties had not been seriously questioned. “We oppose the FDP’s demand,” said Christian Democrat Patrick Snyder. “It is not possible for a government majority to occupy the most prominent space in the center of the Plenary, pushing the opposition to the extremes.”

The new Parliament that emerged from the elections of September 26 was convened in a House after a month, without yet changing the order of the parties. But now the Liberals are restoring the demand and, in theory, with the votes of the Social Democrats and the Greens, they can gather the necessary majority. They even found unexpected allies in the Left Party, which states that it will support them. “It’s like school,” notes the chronographer of DER SPIEGEL magazine. “No one wants to sit next to a class riot, but someone will be forced to do that too.” However, this would not be the first time that the correlations have changed after the backstage fermentation. In 1983, when the Greens entered Parliament with their unconventional appearances (frayed pants, knitted sweaters, beards and the like), Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats refused to sit next to them, but were eventually forced to do so. It was preceded by backstage moves by the SPD, which did not want another party on its left, while the Greens themselves preferred the central seats, because they provided better television coverage.

The appropriate position in Parliament

It is not an easy task to secure the “right place” in plenary. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that the Left Party was left out of Parliament in 2002, but due to transitional provisions of the electoral law, two of its most prominent figures, Petra Pau and Gezine Les, secured their own seats in Parliament. . But as they did not form a parliamentary group, they spent the four years in a chair in the last row of seats, taking notes on the knee. A few years ago, in 1988, the independent MP Thomas Wupersal reached the Supreme Constitutional Court, demanding to be given a seat in the front row of seats, next to political party leaders, with an office and a telephone. His request was rejected …

Giannis Papadimitriou (FAZ, ARD, Die Welt, Der Spiegel)

Source: Deutsche Welle

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Source From: Capital

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