Employees in the German Bundestag complain about sexist statements from male colleagues. The new President of the Bundestag now wants to counter this.
Berlin – The new President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas wants to take action against sexual harassment.
“In the Bundestag administration there are no reports of sexual harassment, but there are cases in which women – including members of parliament – report harassment and sexist sayings by male colleagues,” said the SPD politician to the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”.
Bas wants to tackle a structural problem in the Bundestag: There are already advice centers for employees of the Bundestag administration and parliamentary groups that they can turn to. “But the MPs’ many employees have no point of contact. I want to change that. “
In the summer, allegations of harassment by the Bavarian SPD member of the Bundestag Bela Bach against male parliamentary colleagues caused a sensation. The Social Democrats then set up a contact point for such cases. The parliamentary group named a contact person whom those affected can turn to in confidence. dpa