SPD slopes: Mützenich is not head of the foreign committee

The request of the SPD leadership to make the former parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich the new chairman of the Federal Foreign Committee failed. Mützenich told the star His waiver: “A democratic and clever foreign policy must not concentrate solely on military issues and goals. This is also the wish of a larger part of our population. As in the past, I would have liked to participate in this debate. The chair of the Federal Foreign Committee seemed to me to do so,” said the Social Democrat.

According to party circles, the background is a defeat by the Social Democrats against the Union in internal negotiations with the CDU and CSU on the distribution of the committees. In discussions this week, the Union was chaired by the Federal Foreign Committee. This is considered unusual because the CDU also occupies the Foreign Ministry. As a rule, the specialist committee does not go to the same party as the ministry.

The idea of ​​making Mützenich the head of the Federal Foreign Committee had been heard in the SPD leadership. After the historical election defeat of the Social Democrats, the former parliamentary group leader was the first top mate to clear his post. In the meantime, he had been replaced by Lars Klingbeil on the top of the parliamentary group, now the Lower Saxony Matthias Miersch is leading the parliamentary group.

Mützenich connected his waiver with an appeal of black and red, in which foreign policy also set peace-political accents. “Not only does the voice of the parliament in the issues of war and peace remains indispensable. The nuances of foreign and security policy should also continue to be taken into account, especially in German democracy.”

On Tuesday, the SPD determined in its parliamentary group meeting who it would send to the foreign committee. The so-called ordinary members include a number of social democrats who held leadership functions in the last legislative period-such as Nancy Faeser, former Interior Minister, and ex-labor minister Hubertus Heil. Mützenich was also elected as a full member of the committee.

Each committee has a chairman, there is also a deputy chairman and a certain number of members.

The committee chairman prepare the meetings, appoint them and direct them. Your voice has weight and is of particular public radiance. As a result, the committee chairman can form a powerful counterweight or corrective to government policy. The SPD politician Michael Roth, who has been a member of the Federal Foreign Committee in the past legislative period, repeatedly criticized the support of the Ukraine attacked by Russia-minded by an SPD-led government.