The thought that our politicians could do something in secret has actually always electrified people.

And when a Bundestag debate is broadcast on Phoenix and the camera pans through the plenum, the members of parliament actually do something that cannot do without secrecy.

Many, very many even, have their mobile phones in their hands.

But they don't do it openly, they do it a little bashfully at the edge of the table, so that the President doesn't scold and the public doesn't think they're secretly playing Candy Crush like Bodo Ramelow in the Prime Ministers' Conference.

The deputies type discreetly, they swipe around, and when their heads disappear under the table, the naive, trusting citizen might think something has fallen or their shoes need to be tied.

Justus Bender

Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Some politicians wouldn't be able to work without their mobile phones, and they say that without a wink, in all seriousness.

During a Bundestag debate, the important things sometimes happen on cell phones.

Members of Parliament are summoned to the plenary session via chat groups if the quorum of the Bundestag or the majority of the traffic light coalition is at risk.

Then the SPD MP Leni Breymaier writes "Hammelsprung!" in the faction group.

The deputies are already rushing in to secure the majority – even if it is already in the middle of the night.

When someone speaks in plenary for the first time, Breymaier mobilizes friendly listeners in the chat.

Others give research assignments to the offices just before their speeches.

They then check whether what the previous speaker said is nonsense.

It constantly vibrates and beeps in my pocket.

At party conferences, every current and every national group has its own group, the delegates are told how to vote and what agreements there are.

So political life takes place a lot in chats, and because chats have their own form, there are emojis, hearts and smileys here too.

"This Girl is on Fei-A!"

Of course, the sunflower and the green heart are popular with the Greens.

On the left it is, who would have expected otherwise, the fist raised in class struggle.

The traffic light emoji is sometimes used among coalition partners.

The Jusos in the Bundestag faction like to send fire symbols when a speech was particularly heated, so fine, and SPD MP Adis Ahmetovic says that this probably comes from an Alicia Keys song called "This Girl is on Fire". .

And so that everyone remembers the song, Ahmetovic sings it briefly: "This girl is on Fei-A!" MEPs' chat groups can be a light-hearted topic, but they can also be serious.

Anyone doing politics there runs the risk of being overwhelmed.

Every MP has countless chat channels: normal SMS, iMessage, Whatsapp, Signal and Threema.

Some also use Wire or Viber.

There are also direct messages from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

When Ahmetovic comes out of a session, all possible apps will light up and show in red how many unread messages he has.

Some not only chatted with him during this time, but also asked why he hadn't answered yet.

Ahmetovic is in a signal group of the Jusos in the Bundestag, in a Threema group of MPs from Lower Saxony and Bremen, in a signal group of the SPD sub-district board in Hanover, one of the city association board, a Whatsapp group of Jusos from Hanover, one Parliamentary Left Group, and he's getting Viber messages from people in the Western Balkans,

Ukraine and Poland because he sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Also: lots and lots of emails.

"The mobile phone is a political pacemaker," says Ahmetovic, which means that without the mobile phone there is a risk of political infarction, i.e. standstill.