Merkel CDU Seated With Nationalists in Bundestag Musical Chairs

(Bloomberg) -- With vaccines in short supply, the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine looming and gas prices exploding, one would think the newly elected German parliament would have enough to tackle.

But Thursday, the 736 lawmakers instead held an emotional debate carried live on German television about a topic that anyone who’s started a new school year can relate to: The seating order in the Bundestag.

The business friendly Free Democrats, who are now in a three-way coalition with the Social Democrats and the Greens, have seized on their new role in the government to try and push through a reorganization of the seating, so that they no longer are next to the right-wing AfD. Their proposal is to move the conservative bloc, the dominant force in Germany during Angela Merkel’s 16 years in power, next to the AfD instead.

The plan has the CDU/CSU caucus leader Ralph Brinkhaus fuming. Not only did his Conservatives just lose the chancellery, now they may be ejected from their spot in the geographical center of the Bundestag. The new coalition could show some respect by not changing the “70-year-old seating order in this parliament,” Brinkhaus argued.

FDP caucus leader Christian Duerr coldly replied that the conservatives shouldn’t act as if they were “insulted,” but rather just accept their political fate.

The conservatives will most certainly suffer a defeat on this matter as well. The majority of SPD, Greens and Liberals are set to vote in favor of the change later on Thursday.

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