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Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - It is a curious construction with which the new parliament in Baden-Wuerttemberg starts the legislative period: The 72-year-old Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) will be the constituent session this Tuesday as the longest-serving member of the parliament of the state parliament in Stuttgart and initially lead.
Kretschmann decided to take on the role, a government spokesman confirmed on Monday.
The job of senior president is neither a particularly significant nor a particularly lengthy one. He gives the opening speech, establishes the quorum of parliament, ensures order in the hall and leads the election of the new state parliament president. It is a novelty that a managing head of government fulfills this role. Usually the Prime Minister sits on the government bench or stands at the lectern.
Most recently, the AfD complained against the fact that the Greens, CDU, SPD and FDP had decided with a large majority in the state parliament last year that the oldest member is no longer the oldest, but the oldest member of the parliament.
So they obviously wanted to prevent a member of the relatively young AfD party from opening the state parliament again.
Five years ago it was the AfD politician Heinrich Kuhn, who withdrew from parliament at the end of 2016.
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The AfD failed for formal reasons before the Constitutional Court, but the actually controversial question remained unanswered.
At the moment it doesn't matter because Kretschmann fulfills both criteria because he is the longest-serving MP.
The founding member of the Greens sat in the state parliament for the first time in 1980 - albeit with two interruptions: from 1984 to 1988 and from 1992 to 1996 he did not come to parliament.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210510-99-538331 / 2
Information from the state parliament on the presidium