2024-08-16 17:38:54
The federal government must respond to parliamentary inquiries fully and on time. Many parliamentary groups believe that it is doing this less and less often. Now the President of the Bundestag is raising the alarm.
The President of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas (SPD), criticizes the federal government in a letter to the Chancellery. According to Bas, there are increasing complaints about the federal government’s response to parliamentary questions from the Bundestag factions and groups. She views this development “with growing concern,” as she states in a letter to the head of the Federal Chancellery. This letter is available to t-online.
In the letter, she “strongly requests that the proper answering of parliamentary questions” be guaranteed again in the future. Because, according to Bas: “The development is not acceptable.”
The letter is addressed to Wolfgang Schmidt, Federal Minister and Head of the Federal Chancellery. Ironically, the letterhead features a logo with the words “75 years of living democracy.” It is precisely the way democratic rights are being treated that is criticized in the letter. It dates from May of this year and is somewhat explosive. The tone that Bärbel Bas, even in the SPD, uses towards her party colleague is unmistakably angry.
In addition to the complaints about the Federal Government’s poor response rate, according to Bas, “it has now been reported to the Council of Elders that minor inquiries and individual written questions are not being answered properly, and in particular not on time.” This also includes cases in which the Federal Government does not request extensions “on time or multiple times.”
In addition, timely responses from the federal government often only contain “a mere indication that an answer to the matter will be submitted later.” Bas sees a problem in the federal government’s response behavior because the German Bundestag’s right to ask parliamentary questions is “a high constitutional asset.”
The answers are intended to “provide the Bundestag and its members with the information they need for their work in a quick and reliable manner.” They are essential for the exercise of parliamentary control. Bas evidently sees this control function as being at risk.