Status: October 12, 2021 5:42 pm
Who is sitting next to whom in the new Bundestag? The FDP wants to move into the middle – away from the AfD. But that triggers resentment in the Union, which does not want to swap with the liberals.
In the old Bundestag it was like this: On the right, on the very outside, sat the AfD, then came the FDP and in the middle were the Union and Alliance 90 / The Greens. Further to the left followed the SPD and the Left.
The FDP found the place next to the largely right-wing AfD, however, as very unpleasant, the liberal MP Frank Sitta looks back on the past four years:
It wasn’t a good time. I know that they are very clear in their rejection in many places – for example in people who come to us, refugees. Or when it came to things like vaccination or gender. Then the interjections and the atmosphere within the parliamentary group also show what kind of an image of man there is.
The aversion to the AfD is only one reason why the Liberals would now like to change the seating arrangements in the new Bundestag. Another reads: “We believe that the seating arrangement in parliament covers the classic left-right scheme – that is, from more socialist to very, very conservative – and that we as a party in the middle, as a liberal party, are more centered in it Locate parliament. “
The plenary hall of the Bundestag: who sits where – the parliamentary groups are still arguing about this.
Backing chairs – at the Union’s expense?
If the FDP were to move to the left in the new Bundestag, then the Union would probably have to move further to the right. But the Union does not want that.
“I do not think a change in the seating arrangement is necessary. It cannot be that a coalition, a traffic light coalition, places itself prominently in the middle of the plenum and then assigns the seats on the edge to the opposition. Therefore, we reject the request of the FDP very clearly “, says Patrick Schnieder, member of the CDU in the Bundestag.
In the new Bundestag a dispute has broken out about the center – about the place that reflects the center of society. At the constituent meeting on October 26th, everything will probably stay as it is for the time being. But then a big move could begin.
Traffic lights could change seating arrangements
The possible traffic light coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP is getting things moving. It could decide to change the seating arrangements with a simple majority in the council of elders or in plenary. Then the three traffic light groups would sit together.
Albrecht von Lucke, political scientist and journalist for the “Blätter für Deutsche und Internationale Politik”, thinks this is quite possible. The SPD and the Greens could agree:
The SPD also has an interest in pushing the CDU / CSU to the right. Because the proximity to the AfD has a toxic quality. The AfD is a party that tempts those who sit next to it to deal with it very much in terms of content. And that is a real problem for a CDU / CSU, which also likes to distance itself from the AfD.
The center in parliament is more competitive than ever after the federal election, says von Lucke. And this struggle could break out again and again after future elections.
Dispute over the middle in the Bundestag
André Seifert, ARD Berlin, October 12, 2021 5:25 p.m.