E.t is a strange phase of transition. The time of the old Bundestag has expired, the new one has not yet been constituted. The coalition options are carefully explored. The parliamentary groups have to sort themselves out, which is difficult, however, if you don’t know who will govern – and specifically who will enter the cabinet as a person. Only when it is clear who will be minister and who will be parliamentary state secretary can the entire staff carousel take off. Spokespeople for the various subject areas are to be elected, committees to be appointed and their chairperson to be appointed. The future coalition parties will be in the fortunate position of being able to offer many attractive positions. Anyone who does not belong to them must suffer in this regard.
The Greens and the FDP will become the kingmakers if – as everyone says – there will not be a twisted new edition of the black-red alliance. Both come from the opposition and will soon be able to draw on full resources. If the Union were to switch to where they came from, which is currently the more likely option, it will be tight in their group. Government representatives who have been re-elected as members of parliament and do not think they are at the end of their careers will insist on being taken into account in the few highlighted tasks that the CDU and CSU then have to fill.
For the SPD MPs, the task could change
For an SPD that conquers the Chancellery, the role of the MPs changes. You have to pay more attention to the fact that the coalition is working properly in order to protect your husband in the Chancellery. In any case, the leeway for every specialist politician increases when “his” ministry, which he reflects in parliament, is not occupied by a party friend. Then this largely determines where the journey is going, then it attracts attention.
The other way around it will be exciting. If, for example, Christian Lindner should occupy the finance ministry for the FDP or Robert Habeck for the Greens, the financial policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group can oppose this. With Olaf Scholz in the Chancellery, he can influence legislation. The post is correspondingly interesting. Lothar Binding, who had taken on this task for a long time, did not start again, neither did Ingrid Arndt-Brauer, one of his two deputies. Cansel Kiziltepe, the second vice speaker, would therefore be a natural candidate for Binding’s successor.
The politician from Berlin, who belongs to the left wing in the SPD, is as ambitious as she is clever. In the Wirecard investigative committee, she had put so many in distress with her seemingly naive but ultimately devastating question as to whether a witness himself had Wirecard shares. As the SPD chairman in the committee of inquiry, Jens Zimmermann fulfilled the delicate task for his party in a verbose and sovereign manner of relativizing the involvement of the SPD-led finance ministry in the scandal. He also sat on the finance committee. In addition, the local politician Bernhard Daldrup was one of the more conspicuous members of his group in the busy committee, which is allowed to process all laws on taxes and financial market regulation before they go to the final reading in the plenary.
FDP has many finance professionals
Traditionally, the FDP has a wide range of experts in the field of tax policy. Group vice-chairman Christian Dürr was happy to answer questions in this field. Incidentally, the economist wrote his diploma thesis on “Selected Problems of CO2 Emissions Trading”. Florian Toncar was not only the parliamentary director, but also the financial policy spokesman. Katja Hessel chaired the finance committee in the last legislative period after her predecessor Bettina Stark-Watzinger became the parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group. The tax advisor Markus Herbrand has always understood how to impale tricky detailed questions in legislation in a publicly effective manner.
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