The first day in the Bundestag? “It was wild,” says Carmen Wegge. A woman of the brash word has moved into the Bundestag for the constituency of Starnberg-Landsberg and she makes no secret of how excited she is about her mandate. At just 32 years of age, the lawyer and poetry slammer made it into parliament at number 20 in the Bavarian SPD. Until late on election night, she had been bawling to see if it was enough to move in. But on Monday she got on the train to Berlin, checked into a hotel near the Reichstag and began her new job as a member of parliament. New laptop, new e-mail address, a quick elevator selfie, and someone in the hallway calls out: “Hey, you here too !?”
On her Instagram account, Wegge shows selfies with companions from her time as Bavarian Juso vice-chairman, is amazed at the treadmills that bring MPs to the meeting faster (“Like at the airport!”) And wants to be “silly again and then 100 Percent to be serious “, as she writes under a photo of herself with a party hat. “We’re going to Berlin,” it says, with pictures from the train station in between, as if a big departure was imminent. Wegge feels a bit like having landed on a big school trip to the capital.
Wegge learned what it is like to move on the political stage from the Jusos, with whom she was involved as a 24-year-old. “I can no longer surprise me so much in parliamentary work,” she says confidently. Even so, she has to get used to the attention she is now receiving. She was pleased that the Landsberg police station congratulated her on moving into the Bundestag.
Of the 206 seats in the SPD parliamentary group, 104 are in the Bundestag for the first time, says Wegge. There are introductory events for the newbies. When Wegge takes the group photo with the comrades, she is right in the middle. All but Karl Lauterbach take off their mask – the picture of the SPD parliamentary group is immediately criticized. Put into perspective, of course, that all of the masks in the Bundestag wore them and only took them off for the photo. But as soon as the picture is out, her sister writes: “You already have your first mask scandal!”
Everyone on the group photo: If you look closely, you can see Carmen Wegge among her 205 comrades – she is the fourth head in a straight line behind Olaf Scholz in the center of the picture.
(Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa)
Wegge wants to work in the Interior Committee or in the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection. “That would also be interesting for the constituency, because there will probably be negotiations about the rent cap.” Who works in which committee will only be decided after the coalition negotiations. During the exploratory talks she doesn’t have “an ear to the rails”, says Wegge, for that she is currently too overwhelmed by all the new things. Only when she meets a newly drafted FDP MP, whom she still knows as the July chairman from Bavaria, she calls out to him boldly: “Well, how’s it going?” Of course, Wegge would like a traffic light coalition with Olaf Scholz as Chancellor.
She has big plans: “I want to answer every e-mail, even if I am not responsible for the topic myself.” For issues such as the volume of flights and noise protection, she could imagine establishing contact with the special airport Oberpfaffenhofen. “I am humbled by the task and the fact that I now represent 83 million people.”
Wegge, who grew up in Olching, does not yet know exactly where she will open a constituency office. There may also be two points of contact because the constituency is so large. At first she does not want to have a permanent place of residence in Berlin, even if she dreams of a “red sock flat share”. Apart from the meeting days, she wants to be in the constituency – also with her family. “It’s a challenge for my husband to take care of our nine-month-old daughter for four days during the plenary weeks – but he can do it,” says Wegge.
Now Wegge first has to find an experienced office manager in Berlin, she is already conducting job interviews. An unfamiliar experience that she will now employ people herself and no longer have to fight for approval. Wegge was also surprised by an art project in the Reichstag building; All MPs collect soil from their constituencies in a small courtyard. So Wegge will soon take a shovel of earth to Berlin – preferably from Gilchinger Bald, where apartments for 2,000 people are to be built.