Parliament Disempowered?
January 21, 2007
When the light burns at the German chancellery late into the night, Angela Merkel is likely meeting with decision-makers in the governing coalition of her conservatives and the Social Democrats to wheel and deal.
That's often when new legislation is drafted, such as increasing the retirement age to 67, introducing subsidies for new parents or drafting healthcare system reform. When Merkel and her partners announce the compromises they've made the following morning, it usually sounds as if the decisions were final and any more discussion was moot.
But the fact is those decisions must still be approved by Germany's parliament or Bundestag. Some parliamentarians, including Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the opposition Free Democrats, find the government's behavior unacceptable.
"It happens according to the principle: So much has been discussed outside parliament … and now the Bundestag shouldn't dare to hold up such an important reform project, too -- it must now be quickly waved through," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said. "It's very difficult as a parliamentarian -- especially in the opposition -- to play a part.
Difficulties for governing parties, too
It's parliamentarians' job to examine bills submitted by the government and formulate changes in plenary sessions and committees. But that's hardly possible, even for the parliamentary groups whose parties make up the governing coalition, according to parliamentarian Andrea Nahles, a Social Democrat.
"Because the two heads of the parties have clearly already committed themselves publicly," Nahles said. "And if you then want to make changes, then you always end up in the predicament that you have to damage your own people. And as such, the opportunity to undertake substantial changes to legislation has simply declined.
Political decisions are increasingly made outside of parliament, rather than in the Bundestag, Nahles said.
"My theory is: the parties or the leadership of the parties, as the case may be, have gained in importance in relation to the parliamentary groups, that is, the parliament," she added.
Under pressure
Representatives from industry, trade unions and other lobby groups also sit in on top level negotiations sometimes. They voice their wishes or issue policy papers that quickly become the basis for bills that hardly differ from them.
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said she had observed such machinations for years, but now, with the grand coalition of Germany's biggest political parties leading the country, it had become more dramatic.
On top of that, the government was increasingly demanding deadlines by which parliamentarians were expected to deal with new bills. Sometimes the lawmakers didn't even receive the necessary papers in time, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said.
Help from other instances
"For such complex projects, for bills of around 600 pages, like now with healthcare system reform, one simply needs a bit of time," she said. "As a parliamentarian, I would naturally reject such a law, I don't see any alternative. I think many of the parliamentarians from the (ruling parties) don't know exactly what is written all over those 600 pages either."
That's how poorly written laws have been passed that lawmakers haven't had the time to study and which were not adequately discussed within the parliamentary groups, she added.
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has pinned her hopes on the grand coalition not being re-elected. Until then she said she relied on Germany's president and its highest legal instance, the Constitutional Court, to halt the government's sloppy laws.