Tradition in the Bundestag: Do you discover the code word?

The vast majority of the household politicians did not have much time to snake during the parliamentary summer break. After the government formation in April, they had to come together two federal budgets: on the one hand the budget for the current year, the traffic light coalition had finally broken, on the other hand the household for 2026. So lots of work.

The joy among household politicians should therefore be great that it is now (almost) done. This Thursday, the Bundestag finally votes on the budget for 2025. Immediately before that, the “little kings of the parliament”, as the mighty housekeepers in the political Berlin are also called, have their big appearance again. And they will use it to maintain a ritual that has long since become a kind of running gag in political Berlin.

Before the final round of budget consultations in the Bundestag on Thursday afternoon around twelve, the exclusive circle of chief housekeepers agreed on a code word that should be fed into every speech as an inconspicuously as possible. In recent years, these have been terms such as “captain’s bandage”, “Reeperbahn Festival”, “balden”, “mulled wine” or “herd protection”. A code word was apparently agreed for this year too, more on that later.

In the 2024 budget, the “circus teacher” ensured joy in the plenary. CDU housekeeper Helge Braun used the term for a small swipe: “I temporarily felt that many years of professional experience than circus teacher would not have been bad.” Finally, the budget was almost finished until the MPs got in the way of the constitutional court and the traffic light government had to advise, switch and save.

It is understandable that SPD man Dennis Rohde thanked the then Secretary of State Werner Gatzer for his placement skills, who often acted “like a circus teacher” between ministers and state secretaries. The opposition also moved in: AfD housekeeper Peter Boehringer, it was almost logical that the traffic light coalition also “finances circus educators”.

There is actually no fixed rules for the code word, it can be linked to a person involved – like “Sylt”, where the then finance minister Christian Lindner had celebrated his wedding. Or orientate yourself to a current debate: the back and forth around the “captain’s arbitrator” by Manuel Neuer at the World Cup in Qatar did not only result in heated discussions in this country.

“The expression of this self-not-so-weighting is the tradition of the code word in the final round,” said the FDP housekeeper Otto Fricke in the star. “People always believe that we take housekeepers particularly important. That is not true. The matter is important to us.”

And this year? Should you pay attention to the word “summer night dream”, title of a Shakespeare comedy-and possibly a wink of the housekeepers because of their less relaxing summer weeks.