Germany: the essential Wolfgang Schaüble gives up his place as President of the Bundestag

Wolfgang Schaüble, outgoing President of the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), speaks during the inaugural session of the new German parliament on October 26, 2021, in Berlin.

AFP - ODD ANDERSEN

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

One month to the day after the elections of September 26, the new Bundestag was formed on Tuesday in Berlin by electing its new leadership.

Outgoing Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble steps down.

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With our correspondent in Berlin,

Pascal Thibaut

The German Parliament is now, and for the third time since 1949, chaired by a woman, the social democrat Bärbel Bas.

It is an election which puts an end to an active political career out of the ordinary, that of the outgoing President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble, Member of Parliament since 1972.

Wolfgang Schäuble headed the chancellery under Helmut Kohl, his father in politics, before becoming Minister of the Interior and leaving his mark on the treaty sealing German unification.

It was the same year, in 1990, that he was the victim of an attack which had since nailed him to a wheelchair.

But Wolfgang Schäuble continues.

He headed the Christian Democratic parliamentary group before taking over the leadership of the CDU after Helmut Kohl left power.

He is also a victim of the slush fund cases which shakes the Christian Democratic Party.

Under Angela Merkel, Wolfgang Schäuble will once again be Minister of the Interior and then of Finance.

During the euro crisis, his reputation as a

father

of

rigor

damaged his image in the countries of southern Europe.

Now a simple deputy

Since 2017, he has been a valued and respected president of the Bundestag where he has to manage more violent debates with a far-right parliamentary group.

“ 

Over the past four years, I have enjoyed wide support and respect within this assembly.

I thank you for that and I hope the same will be true for my successor,

 ”said Wolfgang Schäuble.

Wolfgang Schäuble, re-elected in September for the 13th time, is henceforth at 79 years old only a simple deputy, as at the beginning of his career in 1972. Anyone who had the skills and the ambitions will never have acceded to the magistracies supreme, the chancellery or the presidency of the Republic, positions for which he was approached. 

This day also marks the official end of Angela Merkel's mandate.

The Chancellor and her government, however, remain in office and manage day-to-day affairs until a

new Chancellor is

elected

.

To read also: Germany: with Olaf Scholz in power, Angela Merkel believes that she will be able to "sleep peacefully"

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