Even when she was elected to the post in March, Julia Klöckner — an arch-conservative who enjoys wading in to culture wars — was considered a surprising choice for president of the German parliament, and she has done little to allay those concerned since then.
In late June, she angered progressive members by announcing that the rainbow Pride flag would not fly from the parliament building, the Reichstag, on on July 26, as has normally the case. Klöckner also decided that queer members of the Bundestag administration were not to attend the CSD parade in an official capacity. Her stance prompted and parliamentarians to mount a protest by wearing color-coordinated clothes in the chamber to create their own rainbow.
No rainbows, no Palestine, no berets
By that time, Klöckner had already shown that she was going to enforce a strict interpretation of the Bundestag’s clothing rules — these state, rather vaguely, that members’ clothing must simply be “appropriate to the dignity of the chamber.”
In early June, that rule provided the Bundestag president with enough justification to send Left Party member Cansin Köktürk out of a debate for refusing to remove a T-shirt bearing the word “Palestine.” Two weeks earlier, she did the same to Marcel Bauer, also of the Left Party, when he refused to take off his black beret.
A former agriculture minister under Chancellor , 52-year-old Klöckner has long been a senior politician of the center-right (CDU), and a confidante of Chancellor . “I have firmly resolved to always fulfill my tasks impartially, calmly and undauntedly, stay clear on the matter, while connecting with others,” Klöckner said in her acceptance speech.
Impartiality is certainly a watchword for someone in her office: The president of the Bundestag is formally the second head of the German state (after the president and ahead of the chancellor). And while there is no regulation stipulating this, the office is traditionally held by someone from the largest parliamentary group — in this case, the CDU/CSU.
A neutral deputy head of state
But Klöckner is known as a feisty conservative who is not shy of pushing populist buttons. In the run-up to February’s federal election, she caused a stir by posting a combative statement on Instagram: “You don’t have to vote AfD for what you want. There is a democratic alternative: The CDU.” This was seen by critics as both a trivialization of and a tacit admission that the CDU had adopted the far-right party’s extreme anti-refugee stance.
It was not the first time that Klöckner had taken a populist line on immigration policy: from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, Klöckner demanded that they be legally obliged to integrate into society. In 2023, she also reposted a false claim on social media that dental care for asylum-seekers had cost the German state €690 million ($746 million) in the previous year.
Meanwhile, the outspoken politician is not above calling for more reticence from others, especially the Christian church: In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in April, Klöckner said that the church should talk less about day-to-day politics and more about spiritual matters. “I mean, sure, the church can express its opinion on the speed limit, but that’s not necessarily why I pay church tax,” she said.
Nor was her appointment to the new Bundestag role without some controversy: Klöckner gave up her position as CDU treasurer after NGO Lobbycontrol pointed out that, as Bundestag president, she would be tasked with overseeing party donations. She said that she had planned to give up the post anyway before taking on the new job.
A not-always-straightforward career path
Klöckner is the daughter of a winegrower from the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Among her prestigious early roles was as German Wine Queen in 1995, an office that involves more than 200 public appointments a year.
Trained as a journalist, Klöckner led the CDU in her home state from 2010 to 2022, during which time she spent four years, from 2018 to 2021, as Federal Agriculture Minister.
Environmental organizations criticized Klöckner for ineffective policy making and an alleged closeness to the food industry — particularly Nestlé: In 2019, by posting a video on social media in which she appeared beside Nestlé’s Germany chief and praised it for reducing the amount of sugar in its food — campaigners have long called on Germany to introduce a sugar tax.
The Bundestag president’s job
The president chairs the Bundestag’s plenary sessions and supervises the laws governing the parliament. He or she also represents the parliament as a whole, speaking at commemorative ceremonies such as the one held every year on January 27 to mark the Holocaust. The president sometimes also speaks during state visits by foreign heads of government or heads of state.
The president is obliged to respect the rights of all parties, which is why the post is often held by someone with extensive parliamentary experience who is held in high regard by all parliamentary groups and parties.
This was particularly the case with Wolfgang Schäuble, a CDU veteran of several Cabinet posts, who was Bundestag president from 2017 to 2021. Klöckner, by comparison, is a less experienced and some would say a more divisive figure.
Edited by Rina Goldenberg
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