The new Bundestag opposes giving power to the far right

BarcelonaTwo things became clear from Tuesday's session of the new German Parliament: the great political polarization that the country is experiencing – in tune with the rest of the world – and the great power that the extreme right intends to wield from now on, which has doubled its number of deputies compared to the previous term. The polarization became clear when the official election of the new speaker of the chamber, CDU candidate Julia Klöckner, was applauded only by deputies from her own party. And the strength of the far right was put to the test when the Alternative for Germany (AfD) insisted on claiming the vice-presidency of the chamber, in correspondence to its position as the second political force. It has also become clear that the other parties are determined to maintain the cordon sanitaire and avoid giving more power to the far right: three consecutive votes have rejected handing the vice-presidency of the Bundestag to the AfD candidate.

The new president of the chamber has made a conciliatory speech in which she has called for seeking political consensus and listening to all voices, even the "extremist" ones, an allusion that has been applauded by the AfD bench. "Let us have the courage to tolerate opinions within the constitutional spectrum," added Klöckner. The lower house was constituted this Tuesday, in fact, while contacts continue between the conservatives of the CDU-CSU and the social democrats of the SPD to form a Grand Coalition government led by probable future chancellor, Friedrich Merz (CDU-CSU). The SPD now has half the number of seats it had in the previous parliamentary term, but is still negotiating "on equal terms" with the Christian Democrats, who won the elections, as SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch emphasized.

Klöckner was elected with 382 votes in favor, 204 votes against, and 31 abstentions. The 630 members of the new Bundestag (the previous parliamentary term had 733 seats, but a legislative change redistributed the chamber) voted for the president and vice president. This second vote has been repeated up to three times, and on all three occasions the cordon sanitaire on the far right has prevented the election of the AfD candidate, Gerold Otten, 69, as the new vice president of the Parliament. "Their tricks will not impede our rise," said AfD parliamentary leader Bernd Baumann. The election for the vice-president has been postponed to a new session.

The far-right also demanded that the opening speech, which is always given by the oldest member of the Parliament, be delivered by its former leader, Alexander Gauland. But the rules of the chamber were specifically amended in 2017 to prevent the opening speech from being delivered by a member of the far right. This honorary speech was delivered by Gregor Gysi, a 77-year-old left-wing MP (Die Linke), as the oldest representative. His intervention prompted another anecdote that highlights the current political divide and its historical reminiscences: as a gesture of protest, CDU MP Sepp Müller began reading a book about the former GDR, Soviet Germany, to point out that Gysi was a leader of the SED, the Socialist Party.

The new Bundestag, formed this Tuesday and emerging from the February 23 elections, has 152 far-right MPs, the highest number since 1945. And it's not just any far-right party, but a party with legislators who have expressed more extreme views than ever before heard. One of the new AfD MPs is Maximilian Krah, a former member of the European Parliament who refused to repudiate Adolf Hitler's paramilitary SS, causing the AfD to be isolated in the European Parliament. With 24% of the seats in the 630-member Parliament, he will have the space to set the tone of the debate and test the broad "firewall" that the other parties have proposed to promote to politically isolate the far right.