Bärbel Bas is to become President of the Bundestag

The fact that Mützenich took himself out of the race is probably due to internal party pressure. The resistance, especially from the ranks of women in the SPD, against a renewed male parliamentary president was too great. There must be a successor for Schäuble, “Maria Noichl,” the chairwoman of the Working Group of Social Democratic Women, made it clear this week. The SPD’s future program calls for the decade of equality. “These words call for action,” said Noichl. “Therefore, the position of President of the Bundestag must be filled with a woman.”

Schäuble has to vacate his post because the Union is no longer the strongest parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Mützenich had a prominent supporter on his side in SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans. What bothered many Social Democrats, however, was that the highest political posts, including possible Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, would all be occupied by SPD men.

Time was of the essence because the Bundestag presidium is to be re-elected on Tuesday. The former integration commissioner of the federal government, Aydan Özoguz (SPD), who is now to become vice-president in the Bundestag, was also traded for the Schäuble post.

Dear health politician

With Bas, a member of the Bundestag from Duisburg, a specialist politician who is valued across parliamentary groups will now occupy the second highest office in the state. In the federal election, the 53-year-old, who is assigned to the left wing of the SPD, won a direct mandate and entered the Bundestag for the fourth time.

The trained HR manager Bas has been the deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group in charge of health issues since 2019. She took over the post from her predecessor Karl Lauterbach, who concentrated on his application for the SPD chairmanship. Lauterbach, however, remained the most audible voice of the SPD on health policy – especially during the corona pandemic.

The fact that Bas is now to become President of the Bundestag is therefore surprising to some in their environment. It is likely to have been unknown to a broader public so far, but others in the group attracted a lot of attention. Still, she earned a lot of respect behind the scenes.

She was tough on the matter, but you could rely on her word, it is said from the Union faction, with which she last argued about the small nursing reform during the grand coalition. She took on the subject for the next four years.

Among other things, she entered the Bundestag election campaign with the promise to work for good working conditions in care and relief for relatives. The health insurance business economist moved into the Bundestag in 2009 and was previously deputy head of a company health insurance fund for several years.

The sociologist Jutta Allmendinger, who, together with the former chairman of the German Ethics Council, Peter Dabrock, had advertised the nomination of a woman in an open letter to the members of the SPD parliamentary group, praised the decision made. “Chapeau”, wrote the president of the Berlin Social Science Center on Twitter. With Bas, the Bundestag is getting a “President with format: experienced, innovative, integrative”.

The search for Schäuble’s successor turned out to be difficult

As the future President of the Bundestag, Bas will hold one of the highest-ranking offices in the German state after the Federal President and before the Chancellor. The most important task is to lead the plenary sessions.

For the Social Democrats, however, the appointment was difficult: Among the experienced women in the parliamentary group, there was initially no candidate for the prestigious office. Although the SPD parliamentary group has a comparatively high quota of women at 42 percent, many of them are still young or have just entered parliament.

The office of parliamentary group leader Mützenich was more likely to be trusted, who is also valued by the other parliamentary groups for his level-headed and mediating manner. Before the election, the Cologne resident played a major role in uniting the SPD members of the most varied of wings and bringing them together behind Scholz, who is not popular with all chancellor candidates. He only had to access the office of President of the Bundestag, it was said in between.

But apparently Mützenich’s people had underestimated the headwind. If the SPD does not provide a President of the Bundestag, the intended second term of office of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in jeopardy, it was also said. Then you would have had to fill one of the other high state offices with a woman – and not making Scholz Chancellor was out of the question.

The election of the Federal President is due in February 2022. Actually, Steinmeier, proposed by the SPD and previously supported by CDU / CSU and FDP, has already said that he wants to run again. As a female alternative, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, leader of the Green Party and former President of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), was mentioned again and again – she would not only be the first woman, but also the first Green in the highest state office.

However, many are reluctant to make the election of the Federal President a bargaining chip in coalition talks. “The new beginning we are striving for then begins with a lack of style that damages not only the well-accepted Steinmeier, but also the office,” said the Passau political scientist Heinrich Oberreuter the Handelsblatt. “The office of the President of Parliament seems more accessible to political trade, if only because it is very close to political activity,” added Oberreuter.

From his point of view, it is “easier and better to find arguments that speak for a woman or for the occupation by one of the two coalition partners”. Oberreuter expressed the expectation that Mützenich would keep his previous position, “especially since the new SPD parliamentary group will be burdened with clear integration problems due to the large number of Jusos and leftists”.

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