Overview
- Green MP Hanna Steinmüller delivered a budget speech for the Building Ministry on 23 September with her infant in a front carrier, which the Bundestag verified with an official video post.
- Steinmüller said the appearance was unplanned, explaining that a colleague had offered to take the child but she chose not to wake her sleeping son.
- Bundestag President Julia Klöckner praised the conduct and reiterated that allowing infants can be acceptable under certain circumstances, reflecting outreach she began in August to ease access for MPs with babies.
- Public reaction has been sharply divided, ranging from support for normalizing parenthood in politics to criticism of perceived staging and concerns about child welfare and parliamentary decorum.
- The symbolism eclipsed much of Steinmüller’s policy critique, in which she cited gaps in accessibility, support for students and trainees, and insufficient housing expansion in the planned budget.