Politics taz
Election of the Federal President: Stallion parade every five years
Günther Jauch, Katja Riemann: The election of celebrities to the Federal Assembly is unbearable. Because it distracts from more interesting members. more...
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Here we go again. For weeks, people portals and other media will be bothering the public about which so-called celebrities will sit in the Federal Assembly at the end of January to elect Ilse Aigner as Federal President. Like every five years, the constitutional body includes not only members of the Bundestag, but also an equal number of representatives from the states, who can freely determine the state parliaments. And like every year, TV presenters (Günther Jauch), pop singers (Hartmut Engler) and actresses (the inevitable Katja Riemann) will be in the meeting again. And the parties will certainly find some ski jumper.
Among those sitting in the 2022 Federal Assembly were the writer Gaby Hauptmann ("Hengstparade", "Get to the Man") and, for the FDP, Alexander zu Schaumburg-Lippe, which stands in a strange contrast to the party's performance principle, because the man is only known because some ancestor was the head of a long-lost principality over 100 years ago.
The parties in the countries probably came up with the idea of so-called celebrities at some point because they believe that this would make the public more interested in the election and bring a little, well, sparkle to the meeting. But alpha stallions like Günther Jauch or football coaches certainly don't need any more attention. What is annoying is that these people distract from the representatives of civil society who also sit in the Federal Assembly. And the Left Party and the SPD nominated nurses and a hairdresser five years ago, but unfortunately no one talked about them.
The taz is an independent, left-wing and opinionated daily newspaper. We have been arguing in our comments, essays and debate texts since the taz was founded in 1979. We often cannot and do not want to agree on an opinion. That's why you'll find some completely opposing positions here - all part of the very broad left-wing spectrum of opinions.
It is high time for the Federal Assembly's continued jeering to stop; Hörzu also gets its lines filled in other ways. And if the parties don't know who to nominate: what about a lottery among their members?