The passive parliament

Addressing MdBs in the Bundestag on Wednesday, CDU faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus gave an impassioned defence of the proposed new disease control law, which controversially enforces night-time curfews on Covid hotpots.
“I have a heartfelt appeal to make,” he said at the end of his speech. “We in the Bundestag have the power to decide how many people get sick and then possibly die. Please vote for this law and vote for life.”
One could almost believe that Mr Brinkhaus was seriously concerned that the vote hung in the balance and that his carefully worded appeal was needed to win over that last few fence sitters.
Which is strange… because he knew all along that the votes were in the bag. And he didn’t just know that at Wednesday’s debate, he knows that every time a draft law is put to vote in the heart of German democracy.
In Germany, governments never lose votes in parliament.
In her sixteen ye…
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