The leader of Germany’s Bundestag, or parliament, is pushing for stricter rules to deny both access and pay to “extremists” who work for German MPs.
Bundestag President Julia Klöckner has sent a letter to all parties asking for their support to change the German Members of Parliament Act. If given, that would allow the parliament’s administration to ban Germany’s 630 MPs from employing people who fail a test of their political reliability.
The contents of the letter, which was sent out in late December, were made public by left-wing news site RND yesterday.
The administration already has the right to deny access passes to MP employees who fail this test – making it harder for them to move around the premises of the Bundestag.
MPs can still keep these individuals on their payroll though, paying them out of their staff allowance.
Now Klöckner, a Conservative Democratic Union (CDU) MP, would like to change this, stripping “extremists” both of access and salary.
“Those who pose a danger for parliament cannot be de facto paid by parliament,” Klöckner wrote, adding that “extremist” employees could use their access passes for unconstitutional purposes.
In 2025, the Bundestag administration denied access passes to seven employees – all working either for MPs of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) or the party itself.
Representatives of AfD – Germany’s main opposition party with 151 MPs – were deeply critical of Klöckner’s call.
AfD Faction leader Bernd Baumann called the plan “a severe infringement of the free mandate” as it would forbid people from working for the party even from outside the Bundestag premises.
A speaker for Klöckner denied the criticism, saying every prospective employee would be examined on an individual basis – irrespective of their party affiliation.
Conversely, Klöckner’s plan received enthusiastic support from the Greens party.
Deputy Greens parliamentary faction leader Konstantin von Notz said: “We believe it is only right and consistent that those who knowingly and willingly work to dismantle our parliamentary democracy should not also be provided with public funds to do so.”
Notz added that his party would welcome further steps to “increase the resilience of parliament as our democracy’s heart”.
