BERLIN — Germany’s new lower house of parliament opens on Tuesday for the first time since Friedrich Merz stormed to victory in the Feb. 23 election.
It has been quite a whirlwind month. The new Bundestag looks set to be beset by political turmoil after fragmentation of the center ground and surges by both extremes. It necessitated a rare postelection parliamentary session last week so that outgoing lawmakers could back a historic spending revolution to unlock hundreds of billions of euros for defense and infrastructure investments.
But their time is over and the next batch of 630 lawmakers can finally get to work. Here’s what you need to know:
Germany’s extremes can now block the biggest changes
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and, at the other end of the spectrum, The Left control over a third of seats now. That gives them the power to thwart any constitutional changes, which need a two-thirds majority to pass.
Although The Left ― which has its roots in the old East German communist regime ― is in favor of upholding a strict firewall, the Brandmauer, which sees all parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD, both extremes did reject Merz’s drastic spending deal. So if it had happened in the new parliamentary session, it wouldn’t have passed.
They had different reasons for doing so, of course. The AfD opposed it because it cherishes fiscal discipline and is against increased military support for Ukraine. The Left opposes increased military spending more generally, arguing the money is needed elsewhere.
For any constitutional reform in the next legislature any change will need the backing of one of the two parties. But the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is set to lead the next government, has officially ruled out cooperation with both the AfD and The Left, a vow that regional politicians have begun to question in view of the country’s fragmented political landscape.
A party that is pro-Russia, anti-immigration and wants Germany to leave the eurozone now leads the opposition
After securing its best outcome ever in a national election, the AfD will be the second-largest force in parliament, with almost double the number of seats it had last time.
That position provides the party with material benefits and its greatest platform yet from which to attack the coalition government ― set to be formed of the mainstream center right and center left.
The role of the largest opposition party in Germany is in many ways symbolic, but comes with privileges including the right of first reply after the chancellor speaks in parliament. The AfD’s higher vote share also means it will receive more public money, allows its members of parliament to introduce more motions and gives them more influence on parliamentary committees.
Where are the women?
Fewer than one in three members of the Bundestag will be female — a drop of a few percentage points compared to the previous legislature. The Greens have the highest proportion of female lawmakers at over 60 percent, while the AfD has the fewest, with only around one in 10 of its faction being female.
Profession-wise, lawyers are overrepresented. Almost one in five MPs have a legal background, compared with under 1 percent within the German population as a whole. In second and third place are economists (8.3 percent) and political scientists (5.7 percent).
Look out for the nepo babies!
Several incoming lawmakers of Merz’s CDU are family members of political heavyweights from the same party. Among them: Johannes Volkmann, the grandson of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl; Caroline Bosbach, the daughter of senior CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach, who sat in parliament from 1994 to 2017; and Frederik Bouffier, whose father was the state premier of Hesse for over a decade.
Long in the tooth
Although Merz has never governed before, he’s among the parliamentarians with the most life experience.
OK, so he’s no Donald Trump (born 1946) and certainly no Joe Biden (1942), but, at the age of 69, he’s among the 10 oldest members of the Bundestag.
He’s still a spring chicken, however, next to Alexander Gauland from the AfD, who is 84.
The youngest member is 23-year-old Luke Hoß from The Left.
These two extremes reflect the age demographics of their parties ― seven of the 10 oldest parliamentarians belong to the AfD and six of the youngest to The Left.
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