Constitutive meeting of the newly elected House of Representatives in Berlin

The Berlin House of Representatives met for the first time with a new line-up almost six weeks after the election.

The left-wing politician Hendrikje Klein was elected as the new President of the Berlin House of Representatives.

At the inaugural session of the state parliament, 98 of the 149 MPs present voted for the 46-year-old.

There were 42 votes against and nine abstentions.

Klein is the first female politician from her party to hold the office - and the third woman after Hanna-Renate Laurien (CDU/1991-1995) and Cornelia Seibeld (CDU/2023-2026).

The future speaker of parliament wants space for debates

The Left, as the strongest faction, had the right to propose the important post.

Klein, who has a degree in administration, has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2016, so she has many years of parliamentary experience.

Since 2024 she has been parliamentary managing director of the Left parliamentary group.

Her areas of expertise also included human resources and administration.

In the election on September 20th, she won a direct mandate in the Lichtenberg district.

One of the duties of the President of Parliament is to chair meetings of the House of Representatives.

She also chairs the multi-member Presidium and the Council of Elders.

It also exercises domestic authority and police power in parliament and represents it externally.

Klein was elected for a five-year term.

She introduced herself to the parliamentary groups last Tuesday.

In the secret election in the plenary session, she obviously received not only votes from the red-green-red camp.

Klein announced in advance that he wanted to leave plenty of room for debate, but the tone had to be right.

Parliament wants to open it up to school classes or first-time voters.

She wants to increasingly criticize unparliamentary behavior.

Senior president calls for religious tolerance

The meeting was opened by CDU MP Kurt Wansner, who at 78 is the oldest member of parliament.

In his speech, Wansner called for social and religious tolerance.

Every Berlin citizen has the right to live their own faith and shape their personality accordingly, said Wansnser.

"It must shock us all when Jewish fellow citizens say they no longer feel safe in the capital of Germany.

Something we thought we would never have to experience again after the unforgettable past."

It is the task of all representatives and Berlin citizens to oppose such a development.

AfD candidate could lack approval

The two vice-presidents are also due to be elected on Thursday; they were proposed by the CDU and the AfD as the second and third strongest factions.

For the first time in Berlin, the AfD had the right to propose a vice president.

The nominees are the previous parliamentary speaker Cornelia Seibeld from the CDU and Martin Trefzer from the AfD.

The Left, CDU, Greens and SPD factions say that they do not want to elect an AfD politician as Vice President of the House of Representatives.

It is therefore possible that the position will remain vacant until further notice.

The AfD is unlikely to agree with this.

“The election result of September 20th must also be reflected in the composition of the presidium,” demanded AfD parliamentary group leader Kristin Brinker when Trefzer was nominated to the parliamentary group on October 6th.

Eralp wants to become governing mayor

The House of Representatives has 153 members in the new five-year legislative period.

That's six fewer than before.

The Left has 45 seats.

However, the group initially only has 44 members because an elected left-wing politician did not attend the group's inaugural meeting due to illness.

The CDU has 33 MPs, the AfD 29, the Greens 25 and the SPD 21.

Almost half of the MPs were new members of parliament.

The proportion of women in the House of Representatives is around 38 percent.

The Left became the strongest force in the Berlin election and is aiming for a coalition with the Greens and the SPD.

If this succeeds, the current parliamentary group leader Elif Eralp could become a left-wing mayor for the first time.