Berlin – Before the Bundestag passed the billions in aid for the flood regions in its special session on Tuesday, a so-called agreed debate was initially scheduled. Or to put it another way: Before the parliament went about its work, it was first transformed into an electoral arena.
Three hours were scheduled to talk about the situation in Germany. The Greens and the FDP would have liked to discuss the situation in Afghanistan again, which – with German help – is a lot more catastrophic than in this country. However, the corresponding procedural motion to expand the agenda was rejected with the votes of the Union and the SPD. The grand coalition found that this had already been discussed enough.
A request that the responsible ministries not destroy any data related to the Afghanistan mission was also not allowed. While Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) has already declared her willingness to do so, the Federal Foreign Office is much more reluctant to provide information. An application for an extinguishing moratorium had already failed in the Foreign Affairs Committee due to the votes of the grand coalition. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) is not known to have made any concessions in this regard, which was particularly bitter among the opposition.
Then the election campaign officially began in the House. Chancellor Angela Merkel used her speaking time to attack a government alliance that could include the left, scourged Olaf Scholz’s choice of words for having joked those willing to vaccinate them as “guinea pigs”, and briefly mentioned the Union’s candidate for chancellor, who will form the next government. Because she subordinated her presumably last speech to the party’s election campaign, she received a standing ovation from the Union MPs.
They later stood up again with applause after Armin Laschet’s speech. He had thanked the Chancellor for 16 good years and otherwise pointed out once again that Netflix was still sending DVDs by mail in 2005 and that the world has changed since then. Incidentally, the fax machines in the health authorities are a state task, so they cannot be criticized by the federal government.
Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, was so deeply relaxed in his speech that you have to expect at least Merkelian boredom if he should really become Chancellor. He doesn’t even raise his voice anymore when he says sentences like: “I’m very excited and indignant.”
It was left to the FDP and the Greens to demand a policy change. Christian Lindner pointed out that continuity would be the greatest risk for our country. Annalena Baerbock made it clear that the flood aid, which was to be passed later, could alleviate the consequences of climate change – but not the causes. The Bundestag will only meet again after the Bundestag election.
.