Dispute over seating arrangements
“Humanly bad and creepy”: FDP no longer wants to sit next to the AfD in the Bundestag
So far, the FDP parliamentary group sits next to the AfD in the Bundestag – in future it wants to move to the center
© Kay Nietfeld / DPA
The members of the FDP sit next to those of the AfD in the Bundestag, but would like to change places. The CDU / CSU parliamentary group does not want to play along.
The seating arrangements in the German Bundestag are clearly defined. On the far left of the lectern, the parliamentary group of the Left sits, then come the SPD, the Greens, the CDU / CSU, the FDP and, on the far right, the AfD members. However, this order is not set in stone; it can also be adjusted at the beginning of a new legislative period. The FDP is now trying to do this, as the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” first reported.
When the 20th German Bundestag is constituted on October 26th after the election, the Liberals would like to change places and move closer to the center of parliament. On the one hand, this is due to the political orientation, reports the “Tagesspiegel”: The FDP sees itself as a party of the center, which is not reflected in the current seating arrangements. The other, perhaps more urgent, reason is the AfD’s unloved neighbors.
FDP parliamentary group wants to move into the middle – away from the AfD
The behavior of the AfD politicians: inside was “humanly bad and creepy”, quoted the “Tagesspiegel” from the FDP parliamentary group. Marco Buschmann, First Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP parliamentary group, said: “We also hear the whispering and hissing of the MPs. It is difficult to bear these slogans.” Since the AfD is also represented in the new Bundestag, the liberals want to run away.
The FDP tried to do this back in 2017, when the AfD had just entered parliament. At that time it didn’t work out, now the parliamentarians are taking a new attempt around parliamentary group leader Christian Lindner. You want to swap places with the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, which will most likely make up the largest opposition group. But there is resistance from within the Union. “The current seating arrangement is the traditional one and it has proven itself,” said the parliamentary manager of the Union parliamentary group, Michael Grosse-Brömer.
No agreement on the seating arrangements in the Bundestag
According to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung” there was no agreement at an initial meeting between the parliamentary faction leaders and the previous Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). Should the exploratory talks on a traffic light coalition be successful and such a government come about, this could also help the FDP with regard to the seating arrangement: the move could be enforced with the votes of the coalition partners SPD and Greens, and the three governing parties would then sit next to each other.
Sources: “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” / “Tagesspiegel” / “Southgerman newspaper”