Germany’s first "Chancellor's Question Time" in the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, has brought Angela Merkel under cross-questioning from both her coalition partners and opposition parties. Over the course of 65 minutes, the Chancellor methodically answered 32 questions in front of her fellow lawmakers, allotting 60 seconds for the questions and 60 seconds for answers, without follow-up questions.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germany's largest parliamentary party in opposition to the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), grilled Merkel on her migration policy, international affairs and the economy. However, the strict procedure dictated that the Chancellor leave some questions unanswered. AfD representative Gottfried Curio asked the long-time Chancellor: “When are you going to resign?" and insisted that she was responsible for rapes, knife attacks and rise of terror in Germany.
Mrs. #Merkel, when are you resigning?! Hundreds of billions of costs, asylum and social frauds, import of Islamists and threats, endless suffering from rapists, murderers, stabbers and terrorists — all this you have to answer for!
This inquiry popped up with his question on the recent scandal in the German asylum and migration agency (BAMF); officials from Bremen’s regional branch are suspected of having taken bribes and given over 1,000 asylum permissions without proper evaluation. The legislator roasted the head of state, whose officials were made "puppets of the wave-through culture of the Chacel," and slammed the open-door policy, which has allowed in around one million refugees from the Middle East and Northern Africa since 2015.
READ MORE: Migration Office in Germany Granted Asylum to at Least Two Extremists — Ministry
Angela Merkel defended her policy, stating "In the exceptional humanitarian situation, Germany behaved very responsibly," calling it a great achievement. She didn’t comment on the request for resignation.
Later in the questioning, the Chancellor, according to the German outlet Deutshe Welle, reservedly commented on the BAMF uproar, also defended the agency officials, including the former head of the office. Regarding migration policy, Merkel promised assistance to skilled migrants heading to Germany.
After an hour of questioning, the Chancellor left, jokingly commenting on Parliament President Wolfgang Schäuble’s remark "As sad as it is, it's over," as she promised "I'll come again."
These sessions are slated to transpire three times a year to "make the Bundestag the central place of social and political debate again" as the agreement signed by the "grand coalition" of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian wing Christian Social Union (CSU) on one side and the Social Democrats (SPD) on the other.
However, some lawmakers gave less positive reviews of the Chancellor, complaining that the chancellor had failed to answer their questions. The head of the Federal Democratic Party slammed the format during the course of the Q&A session.
The #Chancellor did not answer my question about her reaction to #Macron in #Bundestag clearly. Now we're catching on — that's the character of the # questioning: liveliness. CL