Bundestag: AfD fails in election to chair the budget committee

As expected, the AfD does not get the chair of the mighty budget committee in the Bundestag. The AfD politician Ulrike Schielke-Ziesing proposed for the post did not receive a majority at the constituent meeting of the committee in Berlin, learned the German press agency from Bundestag and participants.

This is expected during the day in a further five committees, for which the AfD had received the right of proposal for the occupation of the curtains. These are the committees for internal, finance, law and consumer protection, work and social affairs and the petition committee.

Mini-parliaments central for legislative work

The current Bundestag has 24 committees. The committees specializing in various subject areas play a central role in legislative work. According to the majority relationships of the Bundestag and in a mini parliament, specialist politicians of the various political groups sit in them.

They prepare the legal decisions that are later made in the plenary, listen to experts and come together in crisis situations. The committee chairman appoints the meetings, prepare them, conduct them and represent the committee to the outside.

Committee front factions can “grip”

Which parliamentary group can nominate for which committee is decided in a so -called access procedure. Depending on the strength of the faction, this may “grab” a certain number of committees. This happens committee for committee in a certain order, which is also based on the faction strength. The budget committee traditionally goes to a member of the strongest opposition group – in this case that would be the AfD.

AfD has already failed with a lawsuit

In the past, according to this right of proposal at the constituent sessions, the in -depth seats in consensus were determined. In the past election period, however, elections were applied for in the committees that the AfD continued, in which the AfD applicants were rejected.

The AfD saw its rights to equal treatment injured as a faction and had sued the Federal Constitutional Court. However, this decided that the design of the occupation process was an inner matter of the parliament.

After the Bundestag election, in which the AfD had doubled its share of the vote, the Union had a debate about future dealings with the party in the Bundestag. The CDU politician Jens Spahn-now Union faction leader-had spoken in favor of dealing with the AfD on organizational issues in the Bundestag as with other opposition parties and thus a controversy.

After the high classification of the AfD to the “secured right-wing extremist endeavor” at the beginning of May by the Federal Constitutional Protection-which is currently put back on ice-Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said that it was now “unimaginable that MPs in the German Bundestag vote for AfD MPs”.

Union and SPD recommend rejection – but also criticism

Before the committee meetings, the first parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese: “We do not vote for members of the AfD to be committee chairman today.” Similar tones came from the Union. It is recommended to the Union MPs not to choose the AfD candidates, said the first parliamentary managing director of the CDU/CSU faction, Steffen Bilger (CDU) on Deutschlandfunk and led to the reason that the AfD was “becoming more and more radical in the Bundestag”.

But there is also criticism in the black and red ranks: he is in the service of this joint decision by the Union and SPD, said Hendrik Hoppenstedt (CDU), one of the other parliamentary managing directors of the Union faction. “However, I am firmly convinced that we do not pack the AfD problem at the root.” He added: “The AfD uses every opportunity to stand as a victim. I would like to take this opportunity.”