Berlin – If Gregor Gysi is elected to the Bundestag on Sunday, he is likely to open the parliament’s constitutive session and would be the longest-serving member of the parliament, thereby becoming the elder statesman of the Bundestag.
Gysi, at the age of 77, said in an interview with the Tagesspiegel, “If I am elected to the Bundestag, I will with a high degree of certainty be the elder statesman. I think of my first Bundestag term in 1990 – it is almost unimaginable.”
Young party members had once carried a sign that read he would one day become the elder statesman, which he considered a joke at the time. “Now it has come to be, because I will be the senior member of the parliament” Gysi said.
Gysi stated that he will give an untime-limited speech, highlighting important new circumstances, including the relationship with the US and the future of democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
As the elder statesman, Gysi’s task is to lead the first session until the election of the Bundestag president. He has been a member of the Bundestag since October 1990, initially sent by the East German Volkskammer as one of 144 members to the parliament already in session since 1987. Since the first all-German election in December 1990, he has been re-elected, with the exception of 2002.
If Gysi is not elected, Michael Meister (CDU) is likely to become the elder statesman, provided he is re-elected, as he has been a member of the parliament since 1994, along with Thomas Rachel (CDU) and Norbert Röttgen (CDU).
In the event of a tie in the length of time served, the Bundestag’s bylaws state that the older member will take the position of elder statesman.