New German Bundestag meets for first time since election

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's outgoing government with their certificates of dismissal on Tuesday evening at his residence in Bellevue Palace.

The move is customary as the new Bundestag was seated. Steinmeier had already asked the Chancellor in the morning to continue his duties in accordance with the Basic Law until a new government is in office.

The German president paid tribute to the merits of the old cabinet at the dismissal, saying that the actions taken by the former Scholz government after the Russian invasion to support Ukraine "was and is an immense feat of strength."

The outgoing government had "made Germany more resilient" and had also "succeeded in forging cross-party alliances to secure and improve our defense capabilities in the medium term with the help of a special fund," Steinmeier said.

Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has called on his likely coalition partners in the SPD to be open to political change.

He said the job for the coalition negotiators was to agree on changes in policies for migration, economy, budgeting, energy and the environment.

"I'm under the clear impression that the Social Democrats have understood that too," he told public broadcaster Phoenix on the sides of the Bundestag opening session.

"We are not negotiating a 'traffic light coalition' 2.0, but a new government under the leadership of the CDU/CSU," he said, referencing the previous coalition so named due to the red, yellow and green colors of its parties.

He called on the SPD to be more willing to move on certain issues. He said that the CDU/CSU was also willing to make compromises.

Merz said that there was a demand for "real reforms and changes" and that if the SPD seeks to use its leverage then "I think we will have to keep looking at the result of the vote … the SPD got 16%, we got 28%."

Julia Klöckner has been chosen as the speaker for the lower house of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. The 52-year-old previously served as agriculture minister from 2018 to 2021 during Chancellor Angela Merkel's last term in office.

But what does her new role entail?

According to the Bundestag's Rules of Procedure, the president "shall represent the Bundestag and conduct its business," which is to say they are in charge of administering the parliament.

One of the main jobs is to conduct parliamentary sittings which they officially open and close, as well as calling lawmakers to speak and making sure they don't speak for too long.

They have the power to issue warnings, known as "calls to order," for those who don't respect the rules of the house.

With the AfD holding more seats than ever, Klöckner may have a lot of work on her hands in this respect. The far-right party is largely responsible for the massive increase in warnings issued over the past two parliamentary sessions, ever since they got into parliament.

Warnings for unruly lawmakers were almost unheard of prior to 2017. But following the AfD's arrival, these jumped to 49 between 2017 and 2021, and then again to 110 between 2021 and 2024 — of which the AfD was responsible for two-thirds.

Germany's new Bundestag has chosen Julia Klöckner from the CDU to be president of the parliament, replacing her successor, the SPD's Bärbel Bas.

She was elected with 382 votes. The Bundestag president is officially the second-highest position in the country, behind only Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Both roles, however, are largely ceremonial, with decision-making power lying with the chancellor and the cabinet.

"I gladly accept this vote and thank you for your ballots and trust," Klöckner said.

In his speech as the Bundestag's longest-serving member, the Left Party politician Gregor Gysi touched on Germany's approach to achieving peace in Ukraine, saying "there are different views on how to achieve peace."

Gysi's Left Party has opposed the recent move to open budgetary taps for German defense spending.

Politicians who rely on armaments and deterrence should not be described as warmongers, he warned.

On the other hand, people like himself who have called for more diplomacy and a new security architecture for Europe that would include Russia should not be characterized as "Putin's servants."

"We simply have to learn to respect that these differences exist. If we want to achieve more credibility with the population, we should use the right not always insinuate the worst possible thing about people with different opinions," he said. 

Gysi also called on all members of parliament to be "more honest," and to speak more simply and in a more citizen-friendly manner.

In another part of his speech, he said Germany's incoming chancellor should apologize to former East Germans for mistakes made during German unification, which resulted in those from the former Communist state feeling "humiliated." 

The 77-year-old was applauded at the end of his speech only by members of his own party.

Thorsten Frei from the Conservative Social Union (CDU), told DW that Gysi's speech had "room for improvement."

"It did not advance parliamentarianism in Germany any further."

According to German law, the outgoing government must be officially dismissed when the new Bundestag convenes. President Steinmeier is set to hand over certificates of dismissal to Olaf Scholz and his 14 cabinet ministers at 5:30 p.m. (1630 UTC).

Until the new coalition government is officially announced, Scholz will stay on in a purely caretaker capacity. He has taken an increasingly backseat role and it is not yet clear what he will do once the new government comes in.

Scholz had a rocky few years as German chancellor. His surprise win in 2021 came just months before Russia invaded Ukraine, and at the tail-end of a global pandemic.

His government had to work out how to respond to Russia's aggression — the decision was to cut imports of Russian oil and gas, on which it had become increasingly reliant, and to send millions in aid and arms to Ukraine to help defend itself.

Germany also faced months of soaring inflation that sparked widespread anger against the government.

However, in the end what brought down Scholz and his ministers was a mutiny from within his own coalition. The business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), which felt that it was suffering from its role in the coalition, was accused of provocation after it sought to lower taxes, scrap reforms and roll-back environmental protections.

Scholz eventually dismissed FDP leader Christian Lindner, paving the way for the early election. Although an election had been planned for later in 2025 meaning that Scholz' chancellorship failed to reach the four-year mark.

The far-right AfD has become the second-biggest party in parliament, winning around 20% of the vote in February's election, but the other German parties have all ruled out working with them.

Even with this so-called "firewall" against the far-right party, they hold enough seats that they could prove to be a thorn in the side of any coalition government.

The conservative bloc of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU came first with 208 seats.

The SPD, who won the election in 2021, saw their historically lowest-ever result giving them 120 seats.

The AfD became the second-biggest party with 152 seats, up from the 83 seats they won in 2021.

The Greens, who had previously been part of the governing coalition, dropped down to 85 seats.

The Left Party was one of the other big winners, seeing its number of seats jump from 39 to 64.

Germany may have a new parliament, but it still does not have a new government, although coalition talks are underway between the three main centrist parties — the center-right CDU and CSU, and the center-left SPD.

The likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday, as the parties presented the results of their first round of talks, that "trust is growing" between the two sides. "I am very confident that we can do this," he added.

However, there remain a few sticking points, namely disagreements on taxes, welfare policy and migration.

Merz is under pressure to provide something for his conservative voters after he backed a major "debt brake" reform and surge in funding for infrastructure, environmental projects and the military, despite having campaigned against increasing spending.

But he has refused to form a coalition with the AfD or to govern with a minority government, meaning that the SPD is the only real option as a coalition partner, giving them significant leverage.

The 21st session of the German Bundestag is opened by the so-called "senior president" Gregor Gysi of the Left Party.

Gysi, 77, is the longest-serving member of the parliament, having held his post for almost 31 years.

He is not, however, the oldest lawmaker as the name suggests.

While the "senior president" role has previously been assigned to the eldest member, that would have been Alexander Gauland, 84, from the far-right AfD this time.

In order to not give him a free platform to speak at the opening of the new Bundestag, the rule was changed.

Gysi has promised not to "abuse the position to hold an endless speech," telling the German local newspaper the Rheinischen Post that he would, however, "speak for a good half hour."

Read more about Gysi and his decades in German politics here.

In a cafe behind the passage between the Reichstag building — the home of the German Bundestag — and Paul-Löbe-Haus — another building belonging to the parliament complex —  a newcomer asks if he can pay in cash before biting into his egg and chives roll.

"Oh great, the weather is beautiful, just as we go in for the first time."

Half an hour later, the same lawmaker is sat alongside his AfD colleagues — the first party to take their seats this early in the morning.

"What are you all doing here? It starts in 40 minutes," jokes another member of the AfD. 

The few women on the AfD benches are taking a selfie, an AfD lawmaker gets his photo taken while standing at the speakers' podium.

Next to come are the Greens. Their benches are between the CDU/CSU and the SPD.

It slowly gets fuller and louder.

This text was originally written in German.

The Bundestag may be one of the largest parliaments in the world, however, it is not the most representative in terms of Germany's demographics. But things are improving.

This new parliamentary session is, to an extent, younger than previous ones. The average age of lawmakers is 47, but the share of lawmakers under 30 has risen to 7.5%, up from 6.5%. This is still below the 12.7% of Germans who are under 30.

The share of lawmakers with a migrant background is similarly not in line with the share of people with a migrant background in the German population as a whole — around 30% — but it has increased to 11.6%, up from the meager 5.9% just 12 years ago.

One data point that has not improved, and in fact has got worse, is the share of women in the Bundestag. Only 32.5% of lawmakers in this new session are women, and this is down from the 36% share in the last Bundestag. This is in part due to the large number of lawmakers coming from the AfD and CSU, neither of which have a women's quota. Only 12% of AfD lawmakers are women.

You can read more about the Bundestag's diversity problem here.

Thank you for joining our reporting on the opening day of the Bundestag following the February 23 election.

The new parliament is meeting with a reduced number of seats — 630, down from the 733 in the previous parliamentary session.

Events will kick off at 11 a.m. (1000 UTC) with a speech from Gregor Gysi of the Left Party.

Lawmakers will then choose a new president for the Bundestag, the second highest position in the country after the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The Bundestag has to meet at least 30 days after the election, however, a new government has still not been agreed on. Friedrich Merz's CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party the CSU, is in talks with the SPD to form a coalition government.

Merz has said he hopes for a government to be ready by Easter, which is on April 20, although the two sides have found a number of sticking points in the first stage of their coalition negotiations.