As of: 09/21/2021 1:23 p.m.
The German Bundestag should actually be as diverse as society is composed. But so far he is far from that. That should change in the future. But how?
There is a trend in society and also in the election campaign: it is called diversity or diversity. You can see it in the candidates on the election posters and on the Internet. The proportion of women has risen in almost all parties. For the first time there are several trans people in the Greens and the SPD – some with such good positions on the list that they can make it into the Bundestag. There are also many foreign-sounding names.
But with six parties with state lists in almost all federal states and direct candidates in 299 constituencies, a more precise forecast of how diverse the next parliament will actually be in the end is at least as difficult as an exact prediction of the final result of the federal election.
Trend with diverse candidates
Three examples: Member of the SPD list in Saxony-Anhalt is Karamba Diaby – for the first time a black man is right at the front. In a self-description, he sees himself primarily as a “citizen of this country, father of three children and educational politician.”
Nyke Slawik, Trans woman of the Greens in the Leverkusen constituency, competes with Karl Lauterbach from the SPD and Serap Guler from the Union for the direct mandate. She says she wants to be probably the first trans person in the Bundestag to stand up for full equality. And Nuha Sharif-Ali is running for the Left Party in Fulda, Hesse. She was born in Somalia and studied politics. Society doesn’t make it easy for her: Black, Muslim, refugee and a woman is difficult, she says. Your headscarf is a difficult subject.
All life prospects in the Bundestag
Of course, Diaby, Slawik and Sharif-Ali have a lot more to say – maybe they’ll soon be at the lectern under the Reichstag dome. In any case, however, they bring a special perspective on life.
That’s what Maximilian Oehl from the “brandnew bundestag” initiative is all about. “It is our concern that all perspectives of people living in Germany are adequately represented in parliament,” he says. “That does not mean that it is a mathematical 1: 1 mapping, but if there is a large imbalance, then it is also clear that the identification of certain groups with the parliamentary system and with democracy is dwindling.”
To put it positively: only when people feel represented do they vote or participate in other ways. The initiative supports candidates by advising them or promoting them. Also Diaby, Slawik and Sharif-Ali. The decisive factor is whether they stand for progressive politics. At least according to the criteria that “brandnew bundestag” has set for it.
Citizenship and Right to Vote
The Turkish community has just pointed out that twelve percent of those eligible to vote in Germany have a migration background. And then there are just under ten million people who live here but are not allowed to vote because they do not have a German passport. In the past, people with a migration background were always underrepresented. Their share in the current Bundestag is 7.5 percent.
Deniz Yildirim from the civil society organization “Citizens for Europe” has three suggestions on how to bind people with a migration background more closely to democracy. One is to send a direct signal to the parties to make a better personal and programmatic offer that takes up the issues of the immigration society. “The second is to decouple the right to vote from citizenship.” The third is to make a contribution so that people become aware of their own power potential, that their voice counts and that they also use this voice to vote.
“Social origin hardly discussed”
But of course diversity is about many different people: young and old are clearly underrepresented in politics. People with handicaps are rare, entire occupational groups such as crafts, care and education are rare.
The education expert and sociologist Damir Softic asks the class question: “It is actually astonishing that the topic of social origin is not addressed enough. We have an underrepresentation of the working class, of people who do not have academic professions and you can feel that when you do sees how economic or labor market policy is made, especially in the Corona crisis. ” It could be different if people without an academic background, for example, also benefit more from the trend towards more diversity.