It is the week of appointments in the Bundestag. In the slipstream of the election of the chancellor and the appointment of ministers, the parliamentary groups have also reorganized who is allowed to send the chairman to which parliamentary committee. The opposition is outraged that the AfD was able to get hold of the interior committee. The Left Martina Renner called the AfD “a security risk”. The previous committee chairman Andrea Lindholz (CSU) said: “Of all things, the AfD, half of which is monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is to lead the parliamentary control of the security authorities in the future – the goat will be turned into a gardener.” CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt, on the other hand, saw “a clear failure of the other parliamentary groups” to have allowed this constellation at all. But could the SPD, Greens and FDP have prevented it at all?
The chairman posts are filled in turn according to the size of the parliamentary group. So this time it was the SPD’s turn first, then the Union, the Greens and the FDP came before the AfD could access it for the first time. After her, it was the turn of the SPD and Union a second and a third time, before the Greens were allowed to choose for the second and the small left for the first time, followed by the FDP’s second access – and so on until everything was distributed.
Traditionally, the largest opposition faction, this time the Union, chairs the powerful Committee on Budgets. She can hardly be blamed for not taking the Home Affairs Committee – the Budget Committee is an important instrument for controlling the government. The SPD initially opted for the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Greens took the European Committee and the FDP the Defense Committee – which meant that the Interior Committee was still available when the AfD first came into play.
It is clear that the AfD has a fixed number of committee chairmen. And in the committees that the SPD, Greens and FDP first elected, a leadership by the AfD would also have been spicy, for example with a view to the EU skepticism of right-wing populists or in view of right-wing extremist networks in the Bundeswehr. But in the hierarchy of outside, inside, defense and Europe, the latter committee is likely to be the least heavyweight. Then why did the Greens grab it first? It was heard on Wednesday that there had been no agreement between the three coalition factions – each had decided for itself which priorities it wanted to set.
The Greens say it was about content – not about providing for a party member
The new group leader of the Greens did not want to comment on the decision on Wednesday – and also did not want to be responsible for the result. Britta Haßelmann, the new leader of the parliamentary group, was still directly involved in the distribution of the committees in her role as First Parliamentary Managing Director. Regarding the decision for the European Committee, she said: “It is of course an important point: Europe and a value-based human rights policy.” But climate policy, flight, asylum and the rule of law are “many reasons to choose Europe”. It was therefore a “clear decision”.
But Haßelmann did not name the most important reason. His name is Anton Hofreiter. The long-time leader of the Green parliamentary group did not get a chance to distribute the ministerial posts. Now he will be the chairman of the European Committee. The two new leaders of the Greens left unanswered questions on Wednesday whether Hofreiter’s provision was worth leaving the AfD to the internal committee.
There was no bad word from the coalition partner FDP. “Of course I would have liked the AfD not to have the chairmanship of the Interior Committee,” said the newly elected parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr Süddeutsche Zeitung. But unfortunately one cannot prevent a party that was elected to the Bundestag from being entitled to such a position: “From my point of view it would also be difficult if the AfD were to chair the committees for defense, foreign policy, or Europe would even have adopted human rights. “
The two other committees that the AfD will head in the future are development and health. In view of the widespread attitude in the party to downplay the corona pandemic, the latter is also explosive.