Unfazed, calm and factual and to the AfD but certainly also belligerent – Angela Merkel has been completed to your second question hour in the Bundestag. Reply was not guilty. From Berlin, Sabine Kinkartz.
This scene has rarity value: The Chancellor is on the government bench in front of a highly drawn-in microphone and answer any questions of the deputies in the Bundestag. For an hour. The topics range from the G20 summit on the Brexit, trade wars, and driving bans for Diesel until the migration Pact. 26 questions and 14 questions are this 12. December, for a total of a little more than the first hour half a year ago.
The rules are the same as in the Premiere: A Minute is allowed to take the question a Minute, but only the answer. This can be good for Merkel and disadvantages. “In a Minute response time, it is naturally only possible in the best case, half a percent to represent what we have done this year,” says the Chancellor, as it is a question of progress in the Reform of the EU list. The limited time but it can also be helpful if the Chancellor does not want to give so exact, maybe even information.
Weapons collect for the day X
For example, when André Hahn left the party in Merkel wants to know if it is true, “have been formed in Germany but also in Austria and Switzerland rights groups that are working on it, a state within a state”. Groups, in which soldiers and police officers were involved and would prepare for the “day X in Germany” and also weapons to collect. “Are you from the protection of the Constitution informed and what you want to do about it?”
Angela Merkel during the question hour in the Bundestag
Merkel responds promptly, but evasive. “I have full confidence in the protection of the Constitution,” she says and points out that “whenever such findings are present, decided and solid to take action against them”. Then she pushes again: “unfortunately, We have developments that should worry us.”
Deputy members in the right networks?
Hahn does not want to be satisfied. “I asked if you have been informed,” insisted he. The left-politicians refers to the so-called Reich citizens “who for years have been belittled,” he speaks of the right networks and the death lists and that a member of Parliament should be a member of the right networks. “Deputy, I am informed,” says Merkel. Moreover, everyone knows that the Federal government and you “decided to take action against such operations”. Point. Next Question.
The questions from the ranks of the government parties CDU and the SPD are mostly harmless. No one here wants to put the Chancellor in trouble. “We thought it was good that you went to Morocco,” says the CDU Deputy Mathias Middelberg Merkel in connection with the UN-migration Pact. Earlier, the AfD’s Deputy Martin Hebner had attacked the Chancellor: “you have divided by the unilateral adoption of the migration Pact, Europe is deep, you have isolated Germany, why you have taken?”
The truth behind the Numbers
The majority of the EU member States was opposed to the Pact, so Hebner. As Merkel drops him to the word. The voice does not, you can together count. “Since we are below 14 land,” said Merkel. Hebner does not want to give up. “We see how nervous you are, remember that you have interrupted me.” Murmur in the plenary, Merkel has to laugh. “I apologize, of course, for the interruption, I just wanted to say, as a physicist, for me, the Numbers only to the truth,” she says cheerfully.
Blow on blow. Minimum wages, cyber-attacks, the OSCE Mission in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “They sell Pitter-patter of steps as the big answer”, criticized the Green Franziska Brantner, the Chancellor. Merkel remains unimpressed, even when attacks from the ranks of the AfD. Whether or not you understand, finally, that it was good, when she was gone, asks one of the right-wing populists. His colleague Markus glad Maier begins his speech so that the Brexit-the agreement between the EU and the UK was designed “to punish the British people for their democratic choice”.
“Why be so deported a few refugees?”, Bernd Baumann, AfD (li asks.)
No renegotiations when Brexit
56 seconds, Maier is Happy to point-by-point what was bothering him. Finally, the real question to the Chancellor: “The agreement fomenting hatred and discord in the British people, Mrs Merkel, a European peace project?” The Chancellor has listened to the AfD-politician quiet. “Their mixture of facts and opinions I do not share,” she replies tersely, and refers to “the facts”.
The agreement was a very “fair balance” between the interests. It would not constricted in Brussels for sure once again. Nevertheless, there is a “difficult design” due to the geographical location. “That’s why we have to take into account such things as a Backstop, to discuss the question of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.” With one Minute and 20 seconds, the response has taken longer than allowed. President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Chancellor but to grant.
Arms exports to Saudi Arabia
In the end, he uses multiple times. Especially, if the maximum demand lasts longer than 30 seconds. About half of the Question takes the opportunity to follow-up. The left-politician, Heike Hansel, who wants to know why German armaments companies in their weapons on foreign subsidiaries, despite the Export ban further after Saudi-Arabia can deliver. As the Chancellor speaks evasively of legal limits, refers to Hansel to a gap in the law, which is enabling and easy to close. With Success. “I’m going to use your question to address the gap in the law,” promises Angela Merkel.