About a week and a half ago, Sunday, September 26th, marked the national election for Germany's lower House of Parliament. The results were described as "more diverse and inclusive than ever" (usnews). For the first time in the history of the German parliament, there were two transgender women, at least three people of African American descent, and the number of females elected increased. The inclusivity and diverse representation of parliament will contribute to Germany's equality within their democracy and set examples for leadership opportunities for countries all around the world.
The Reichstag Building- the German parliament Bundestag building (wiki).
Germanys center-left social democrats won the majority vote in the national election. They out beat Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union who had been in office for 15 going on 16 years. Members from all different backgrounds and orientations were elected to parliament. Hakan Demir, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, is one of the hundreds of people who ran for the lower house of parliament. One of the newly elected immigrants was Awet Tesfaiesus, is the first black woman to serve in parliament. Just at the age of 4, Tesfaiesus fled from Eritrea with her family to Germany. She is a member of the Green party and will represent Werra-Meissner constituency. Another new Social Democratic lawmaker is Armand Zorn who was born in Cameroon and came to Germany at age 12. Reem Alabali-Radovan, is the daughter of Iraqi migrants and she will serve in parliament, and Serap Guler the daughter of Turkish migrants, she has served as a deputy minister for the North Rhine-Westphalia state and will serve in parliament as well (usnews, dailysabah).
Some legislation to be enacted in Germany's parliament is allowing LGBTQ mothers to adopt children, specifically Ganserer pushing for this. Slawik has pushed for homophobia, transphobia and improving laws on anti-discrimination. Even though homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, hate crimes and homophobia are still very much present in Germany. Elected leaders will act on these issues and hopefully push for laws to protect these groups (AA).
The key issue in German elections is that the party who wins does not win the majority and does not get to appoint the next Chancellor. This is because majorities are rare and there are many parties in Germany such as the green party, SDP, and others all competing during an election. For the next Chancellor to be appointed, first a coalition government must be formed, which can take a decent amount of time even months and Merkel will remain in office till they determine the next Chancellor. In a coalition, members of different political parties come together to form a government due to reason that no party won the absolute majority. The main contenders for the Chancellor title are Olaf Scholz who is a member of the SPD and Armin Laschet who is a member of the CDU party. Their task will be to engage with parties to attempt to form a coalition to ultimately win the seat of Chancellor (cnbc, bbc).
Olaf Scholz has claimed that his leadership in government would offer relationships with the United States. His quote states,
"It is important that we understand ourselves as democracies and that we see that in a world that is becoming more dangerous it is important that we work together, even if we do have conflicts in one or the other question" (France24).
Germany’s Turkish community with about 3 million people, is one of the largest ethnic groups, but they have been underrepresented in political life and in the Bundestag for a long time (AA). From this election, at least 18 politicians with Turkish roots and most of them being women, will take their seats in Germany’s new parliament. The Turkish community has finally been given the opportunity for their voices to be heard and their hope for political representation.
This chart depicts the percentages that each party won in this past election. As noted, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won the highest amount of votes. Then in second was the Christian Democratic Union, third was the green party, fourth was the free democratic party and alternative for Germany came in last.
More than 500 candidates with immigrant roots ran for parliament this year and many of them won the election. As a German society, representation for those minority groups, immigrant groups, and citizens generally underrepresented was lacking. The increase in population and diversity in Germany has pushed for an accurate representation of the population and this is exactly what this year's election provided. With more diversity in parliament, the representation of Germany will be more focused and inclusive to its citizens and the ideals supporting a democracy. This includes political equality, fair representation, and the importance of new perspectives, ideas, and morals from people outside of the German identity. Countries all over the nation can look to Germany for inspiration as they take their government in the direction of positive change.
Sources:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-09-28/germanys-new-parliament-is-more-diverse-than-ever-before
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/germany-s-parliament-more-reflective-of-diverse-population-after-elections/2376203
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/elections/18-lawmakers-of-turkish-descent-win-seats-in-german-elections
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/27/germany-election-whats-next-after-gridlock.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58712619
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210926-live-germany-goes-to-the-polls-to-elect-new-parliament-and-merkel-s-successor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building
No comments:
Post a Comment