"The plenary hall is not a stage": Klöckner calls on MPs to refrain from overly casual clothing

"The plenary hall is not a stage" Klöckner calls on MPs to refrain from overly casual clothing 14.06.2025, 05:00

Two Left Party MPs caused a scandal in the Bundestag. Bundestag President Klöckner expelled the politicians from the plenary chamber for wearing a beret and a sweatshirt with a pro-Palestine slogan. Now she explains why she couldn't let this go.

Bundestag President Julia Klöckner has urged members of the Bundestag not to dress too casually in the plenary hall. "Parliament is, of course, not a catwalk," Klöckner told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). "But when we're talking about the House of Representatives and its dignity, there's no need to come dressed as if you were going to the gym or wallpapering your room. The fact that we even have to discuss something like this shows how the Bundestag, as an institution, is being tested."

The President of the Bundestag defended her decision not to allow a Left Party MP to wear a beret in the plenary chamber. "If I allow this hat, the next person will wear a golf cap and the third will wear a steel helmet. That's simply not appropriate," she said.

The wearing of a sweatshirt with a pro-Palestine slogan by a Left Party member of parliament was also a violation of the Bundestag's rules of procedure. "These rules state very clearly that a debate about political content is conducted solely through words, not through stickers, banners, or other symbols. It was important to me to make this clear at the beginning of this legislative period," Klöckner said.

Klöckner complained that the Left Party and the AfD were using the Bundestag too much to profile themselves on social media. "The Bundestag is home to a strongly growing Left Party and a strongly growing AfD, who seem to need each other to serve TikTok and other areas of their respective communities," she said. "But the plenary hall is not the stage for creating tailor-made content for digital media. This is solely about debating the issue through speech."

Not to be understood as an award

Both factions are in a kind of competition for reprimands. "We're currently observing that there are several candidates for first place in violations of the rules. This shouldn't be seen as an award," Klöckner said.

At the beginning of June, Julia Klöckner expelled Left Party MP Cansin Köktürk from the plenary chamber for wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Palestine." Two weeks earlier, her parliamentary colleague Marcel Bauer was expelled from the plenary chamber for wearing a beret.