“At the first meeting of the citizens’ council, the food was unbalanced,” says Holger Dehnhardt. Too much meat, not enough clearly labeled vegan and vegetarian dishes. The Berliner is one of 160 citizens selected by lottery who were asked to discuss how the Bundestag was commissioned by the Bundestag Nutrition Germans have changed and how the state should react to this.
Hendrik Moll from Stade has also been there since the opening event at the end of September. On Saturday he leaned with Dehnhardt at a bar table in the Paul Löbe House of the Bundestag. Lunch break. There are salads, mashed potatoes with beetroot, Königsberger meatballs, fried chicory and salmon. Much of it is organic or from regional producers. Both of them enjoyed the meal today.
“The Citizens’ Council is a learning system,” jokes Moll. This was evident not only in the food, but also in the content. For example, when it comes to the topic of education, which came up again and again in the Citizens' Assembly discussions. But education is a state matter. The Citizens' Assembly should develop – non-binding – recommendations for the Bundestag on questions that the MPs can actually decide on.
Warnings of an erosion of parliamentary democracy
He was appointed in May at the request of the traffic light factions and the then Left faction. In order to reflect the diversity of opinions as well as possible, the participants were randomly selected. 20,000 people were contacted and around 2,000 showed interest. In July, the actual participants were drawn according to age, gender, geographical origin and educational background according to the proportion of the total population. Vegans and vegetarians also belonged to the Citizens' Assembly in proportionate proportions.
The Union and the AfD were skeptical about this form of participation and warned of an erosion of parliamentary democracy. There was also criticism of the costs – three million euros are available for citizens' councils in the 2023 budget. Proponents pointed to the opportunities that a citizens' assembly offers for democracy: people who would otherwise not or hardly reach politics could express their opinions and learn to better understand political processes – and their hurdles.
The Citizens' Assembly encountered such a hurdle quite early on after its start on the subject of education. But in the end he also found a solution. The participants decided to make an overarching recommendation on education in the hope that the Federal Council she acknowledges. Moll, Dehnhardt and nine colleagues worked on the wording on Saturday morning, while other groups worked on twelve specific demands and two minority votes.
Participants in the citizens' assembly will present the final recommendations to the Bundestag on January 14, 2023.
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Image: dpa
The positions were developed over three face-to-face weekends and six online sessions, in exchange with experts and members of parliament and through excursions, for example to Berlin table. The citizens' councils have invested a lot of time and passion in this democracy project. You will receive an expense allowance of a maximum of 900 euros, and travel expenses will be reimbursed.
On Saturday afternoon, the groups will present their recommendations to the plenary session. Time for clarification questions and final changes. The content should no longer be discussed – except for the issue on which the Citizens' Assembly is divided: the sugar tax. One group has drawn up a recommendation for this, another would like the Bundestag to use other means to combat high sugar consumption.
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