President and Vice-Presidents

The President and his deputies, the Vice-Presidents, are elected for one electoral term. They cannot be removed from office by a decision of the Bundestag. This arrangement is intended to strengthen their independence in carrying out their official duties, especially in chairing the plenary sittings of the Bundestag. Should circumstances arise which cast doubt on a President's or Vice-President's suitability to remain in office, their resignation is the only way to enable the appointment of a successor.

In the Rules of Procedure, the most important duties of the President are described as follows:

"The President shall represent the Bundestag and conduct its business. He shall uphold the dignity and rights of the Bundestag, further its work, conduct its debates fairly and impartially, and maintain order in the Bundestag. He may participate in the meetings of any committee in an advisory capacity."

The President represents the Bundestag in the public domain. Since the Bundestag, as the only constitutional body directly elected by the people, is the supreme authority in the structure of state, the President of the Bundestag is second in rank only to the head of state, the Federal President. All correspondence concerning the Bundestag (but not the parliamentary groups or Members) must be addressed to the President. The President also represents the Bundestag in any legal disputes before the Federal Constitutional Court. He does not does so in person, however, a legal representative being appointed by the Bundestag.

The President's most important public function is to conduct the sittings of the plenary. He opens and closes the sittings, calls each item of business on the agenda, opens and closes debates, grants leave to speak and determines the order in which speakers are called, subject, however, to the amount of speaking time each parliamentary group is allotted in line with its size. As a matter of principle, the President in the Chair is impartial in his conduct of sittings. He also resolves any procedural questions which may arise. Public criticism of the President's conduct of sittings constitutes a breach of parliamentary order. To ensure the orderly conduct of plenary sittings, the President may call upon speakers who digress to keep to the subject under debate, and call to order or censure by name any Member who when speaking or interrupting another speaker commits a breach of order, for instance by making an insulting remark or disturbing the debate by noisy behaviour. In the case of a serious breach of order, the President may even suspend a Member for up to 30 sitting days - with negative consequences for the latter's remuneration.

If disturbances in the Bundestag threaten to obstruct business in the House, the President may interrupt the sitting, if necessary by leaving the Chair. The President may also expel any person from the public gallery who disturbs the sitting by behaving in a disorderly or unseemly manner.

During the plenary sittings, the President and the Vice-Presidents generally alternate in the Chair every two hours. When in the Chair, the Vice-Presidents have the same powers in conducting sittings and maintaining order as those vested in the President.

If the President is unable to discharge his duties, one of the Vice-Presidents from the second largest parliamentary group takes his place.

The President and the Vice-Presidents form the Presidium, which meets regularly in each week of sittings to discuss the management of the internal affairs of the Bundestag. The Presidium is involved in personnel matters relating to senior civil servants in the Bundestag Administration and in concluding important contracts. It also looks closely at matters concerning public relations. The Presidium decides by majority vote. In the event of a tie, the President has the casting vote.

Top of Page

Print Version