German Bundestag: Can the parliamentary groups simply swap places?

German Bundestag
FDP does not want to sit next to AfD: This is how seat allocation works in parliament

It is no fun to sit next to the AfD, justified the deputy FDP parliamentary group chairman Stephan Thomae the wish of the parliamentary group in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. Vulgar and sexually suggestive comments from the right-wing ranks against the female members are a reason to reconsider the seating arrangements in parliament. The parliamentary group had announced that it wanted to swap places with the CDU in the new legislature. After the election result, the FDP sees itself as a middle-class party – the decision to place itself in the Bundestag accordingly also bears a certain symbolism.

The Union is refusing to comply with the request of the Liberals and has rejected the request to change the seating arrangement. “In history, no coalition has ever come up with the idea of ​​placing itself as a coalition prominently in the middle of the plenary session and referring the opposition to the places on the fringes,” said Partick Schnieder, Parliamentary Executive Director of the CDU star. “So far, that has not been the way the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag dealt with them, no matter what the majorities were.”

In fact, the question of space has often been an issue in the past. In 2017, shortly after the AfD moved into the German Bundestag, the FDP applied for a move. Because there was no success at the time, the parliamentary group started another attempt four years later. The reason for the failure in 2017 was the burst negotiations in Jamaica, according to the FDP parliamentary group.

The Union tried something similar in 1983. At that time, the Greens moved into the Bundestag for the first time – if it had been up to the Christian Democrats at the time, the Greens would not be in the middle, but on the left. The party was granted its place between the CDU and the SPD. “In doing so, we have expressly taken into account the fact that the majority parliamentary group must also vacate seats in the prominent middle of the plenary,” emphasized Schnieder.

Who decides on the seating arrangements in the Bundestag?

the Seating in the Bundestag have a long tradition that can be traced back to France in the early 19th century. After Napoleon Bonaparte was overthrown in 1814, the French Chamber of Deputies made a distinction between “left” and “right”. At that time, however, it was not about the distinction between political attitudes that is common today, but about the allocation of seats to the aristocratic parliamentary group and representatives of the third estate. So the nobility claimed the place of honor to the right of the president. Only later did the name for political parties evolve from the formal seating arrangement. The fixed seating arrangements for MPs within the parliamentary groups have been in place since Repealed in 1986.

Whole factions want theirs Switching places, it gets more complicated. The FDP has submitted an application for this to the Council of Elders in the Bundestag. This body, consisting of the President of the Bundestag and members of the individual parliamentary groups, is responsible, among other things, for such questions, according to the FDP. As a rule, suggestions for changes to the seating arrangements are made by the President of the Bundestag. As the “Augsburger Allgemeine” reported, the still incumbent Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble has proposed a new seating arrangement. Until the Bundestag is constituted, the “Advocacy Council” is an informal body that deliberates on this question. It is still open whether the application will be approved.

But parliamentary groups and coalitions can also change the seating arrangements – provided they have a majority in the Bundestag. Then a motion must be submitted to the plenary session or the council of elders and a vote must be taken on it. How exactly the new seating arrangement should look like in the end will then be discussed in the council of elders, the FDP parliamentary group announced. At the same time, she stressed that the seating arrangement was not the most pressing issue. We are currently busy with the explorations, on which we want to concentrate fully. If it came to a traffic light alliance, the new government could also tackle the seating arrangements in parliament, according to the parliamentary group. In the constituent session of the Bundestag, everything should remain the same in terms of seating arrangements.

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