Bundestag | Union slows down Left Party MPs

The feared party-political skirmish unfolded: three of the four Left Party candidates for so-called secret committees of the Bundestag failed late Thursday afternoon . These are not the usual specialist committees, but committees that deal with security-related issues and whose work is therefore subject to secrecy. In advance, the Union - and in particular the CSU - had already stirred up sentiment against Left Party parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek and publicly questioned her suitability as a member of the Parliamentary Control Committee, which monitors the work of the secret services. The reasons given varied from doubts about Reichinnek's reliability, her activities on social media to the claim that a parliamentary group leader cannot devote enough time to such a sensitive task. Since two AfD MPs were also not elected, the control committee will until further notice only include one MP from an opposition parliamentary group, Konstantin von Notz from the Green Party, alongside representatives of the CDU, CSU and SPD.

Because of the campaign against Reichinnek , media coverage primarily focused on her person. However, as it became clear on Thursday, the conflict is of a different nature. Representatives Ines Schwerdtner, leader of the Left Party, and Tamara Mazzi were also not elected. Schwerdtner ran for the Federal Debt Management Act committee, while Mazzi ran for the Bundeswehr Financing and Special Assets Act committee. Only Dietmar Bartsch was elected to the trust committee, which deals with the financing of the intelligence services.

What is striking about the voting results is that the three unsuccessful Left Party candidates received between 260 and 280 votes. This would have required a so-called chancellor majority of 316 votes, i.e., a majority of all elected members of parliament. The votes for the three Left Party candidates roughly corresponded to those of the SPD, the Greens, and the Left Party. Presumably, the vast majority of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, as well as the AfD, whose candidates also failed and received only the votes of their own parliamentary group, voted against.

Left Party leader Ines Schwerdtner described the CDU/CSU's voting behavior as a political scandal. By denying Left Party representatives participation in these committees, "they are depriving their own government actions and the actions of state bodies of the necessary democratic oversight," Schwerdtner explained in response to an inquiry from nd. "But precisely this oversight is essential for a functioning democracy." In the so-called financing committee, the opposition's task would be, among other things, "to gain insight into the work of companies with federal participation and to insist on fair working conditions, sensible use of funds, and sustainable corporate development." In Schwerdtner's view, the CDU/CSU wants to punish the Left Party because it "was inconvenient in dealing with the mask affair and the firewall issue."

Under such conditions, democratic two-thirds majorities are very difficult to imagine in the future, Schwerdtner said. "Those who exclude the opposition cannot expect its support." This alludes to the fact that the CDU-SPD coalition is dependent on the votes of the Greens and the Left in votes that require a two-thirds majority if the AfD is to be kept out of the running. This was most recently the case when Friedrich Merz failed in the first round of the chancellor election, and the question arose as to how quickly a second round could be held.

A two-thirds majority is also required for amendments to the Basic Law, for example. Reichinnek pointed out before the election that the coalition would also rely on Left Party votes for the election of constitutional judges and the reform of the debt brake. Earlier in the week, Left Party MP Christian Görke, parliamentary manager of the Left Party until the new parliamentary executive elections on Tuesday, said that rejecting Left Party candidates would have "far-reaching consequences for all other agreements in this parliament." How the Left Party will react to the votes—whether it will field the same candidates again or nominate new candidates—has not yet been decided.