Press review
SPD politician Bärbel Bas
“Bärbel who?” starts with a handicap: This is how the press comments on the future President of the Bundestag
She could soon be at the head of the Bundestag: SPD politician Bärbel Bas
© Xander Heinl / Picture Alliance
After a long struggle, the SPD has found a President of the Bundestag. The health expert Bärbel Bas is to be at the head of parliament in the future – a double-edged personnel decision for the media.
For the third time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a woman is to be at the head of the German Bundestag: The Duisburg SPD MP Bärbel Bas is to be elected as the new President of the Bundestag in the constituent session next Tuesday. A corresponding personnel proposal from SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich was unanimously approved by the parliamentary group’s executive committee on Wednesday evening.
Bas was “a social democrat with a great biography,” said Mützenich. She has “great parliamentary experience”. The 53-year-old has so far been the deputy chairwoman of her parliamentary group. The trained personnel manager from Duisburg has been sitting in the Bundestag since 2009 and mainly deals with social and health issues. For several years she was the parliamentary director of her group.
For the media, the choice of Bärbel Bas is a double-edged sword – but this is less because of her person and more because of the way her party is handled. An overview of the press reviews.
“Badish newspaper”: But oh, the SPD only had male candidates on its screen. It took some woman power to correct this. And yes, you can vividly imagine how the Greens then cleverly brought their celebrity wife Katrin Göring-Eckardt into play. Promptly, the comrades searched even more hectically for their own applicant. (…) With a sigh of relief, they found what they were looking for. Bärbel Bas should do it. Bärbel who? (…) Compared to the formative personalities at the head of parliament in front of her, Bas lacks profile, experience and charisma. Sure, she can win all of that. It would be nonsensical to discuss suitability with Bärbel Bas in advance. But she starts with a handicap, and she owes that to her own party. With its nomination, the SPD did not sufficiently appreciate the importance of this high office.
“Frankenpost”: Two female presidents have already headed the Bundestag: Annemarie Renger (SPD) and Rita Süßmuth (CDU). Both names are still important today, when they were appointed to office they had earned not only notoriety but also respect. One can only hope that the SPD knows what it is doing – and that Bas can represent and fill the office in all forms. Because nobody can know today.
“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: Bärbel Bas, who will probably soon be the second woman in the state, is likely to know only a few citizens so far. The SPD, emaciated after many years of drought, no longer has many beaming parliamentarians to muster. Bas lived a different life than their predecessors Wolfgang Schäuble and Norbert Lammert, who also filled the office with their charisma. Bas will have to find her own style. (…) Lammert once gave the floor to critics of the euro rescue policy, to the annoyance of the federal government. This speaks a different understanding of official courage than that of a still-incumbent Bundestag Vice President, who sometimes rebelled, sometimes rude about the government’s corona policy. The format has to be added to the proportional representation. But that can also grow.
“Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung”: Even if Bärbel Bas takes a seat in the highest seat in parliament, there remains a male dominance that no longer fits in with the times. And not only that: a large part of the most important posts that the state has to fill is occupied by SPD people. But a good quarter of the votes in the Bundestag election do not at all justify this preponderance. That is why the Social Democrats should speak to Frank-Walter Steinmeier again, who has expressed his interest in a second term at an early stage. It should make room, for example, for a green woman, such as Katrin Göring-Eckardt.
“Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung”: Respect was the catchphrase with which Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz contested his election campaign. When the self-proclaimed “Coalition of Progress” is formed in a few weeks, it must be careful that this respect is also shown to women. The fact that Bärbel Bas is now President of Parliament can at best be a first sign. Real respect is expressed through a cabinet with equal representation – and in the end, the re-election of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is not without alternatives.
“Daily mirror”: The fact that even the self-proclaimed Progressive Party first long debates whether it has a “suitable” wife and first proposes a suitable man shows one thing above all: It does not take its own right to equal rights seriously enough. (…) If top women like the former SPD leader Andrea Nahles had not been bullied from their posts (quote from Olaf Scholz: The SPD revealed a “fairly misogynistic proportion” at the time) and if others had been promoted early on, there might have been more choice. If you want tall women, you have to give them the opportunity to grow at some point.
“taz”: Not nominating a woman as President of the Bundestag would be tantamount to an affront of gender equality in 2021. Because with the emerging traffic light coalition, a male President of the Bundestag could have meant that the five highest offices in the republic would only have been occupied by men (…). “Women owns half of power”: With this, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz campaigned. Bas’ election can therefore also be seen as a signal that there will be equal representation of the cabinet at a traffic light. All-male groups are a thing of the past.