Speech and answer: Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing had to answer questions from parliamentarians in the Bundestag on October 18th.
Image: Imago
Truck tolls, faster approval procedures for roads and rails, 30 km/h zones: laws can be debated. But anyone who followed the transport minister’s questioning in the Bundestag will learn to appreciate parliamentary democracy.
Dhe vocational school teacher Englhardt- Kopf from Schwandorf, the industrial engineer Reinhard Brandl from Ingolstadt, the lawyer Stephan Gelbhaar from Berlin and the construction engineer Mathias Stein from Kiel have a lot in common. Firstly, all four don’t know whether they will have to look for a new job at the end of 2025. Because as members of the Bundestag, they have to regularly ask their boss – i.e. us voters – to extend their contract. Secondly, they are largely unknown to the public and can therefore rightly be described as backbenchers, even if the MPs in the Reichstag building do not sit on wooden benches but in comfortable armchairs.
The four named did this last Wednesday together with several dozen colleagues in order to maintain a parliamentary tradition that is officially called the “Survey of the Federal Government”. Since it would be quite cumbersome to regularly grill the entire federal government on all current topics, individual ministers ask questions during the meeting weeks that do not have to be submitted beforehand. The practice itself increases pride in the parliamentary system; even hardened regulars have to admit: You shouldn’t even suggest something like that to the Putins and Xis of this world if you value your life and career.
Now the Federal Minister of Transport met this week, which was quite fitting, because from the truck toll to 30 km/h zones in municipalities to the accelerated modernization of roads and rails, a lot of things had to be passed in terms of mobility by the weekend. No matter what stance you take on individual provisions of the law: Anyone who always complains about “those up there” would be surprised that the backbenchers in question mainly followed up in a knowledgeable and fact-oriented manner, while the AfD MPs alone were out of line in their polemicizing. We therefore recommend that anyone who has doubts about democracy in action occasionally visit the Bundestag website on the Internet, where the meetings are broadcast live. And whoever still complains at least knows what exactly it is about.
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