Overview

• Hanna Steinmüller delivered a budget speech for the housing ministry with her infant in a front carrier at the lectern, which the Bundestag recorded as a first.
• Official video showed the baby calm and apparently asleep throughout the appearance.
• Bundestag President Julia Klöckner praised the move and said allowing infants under certain circumstances is acceptable.
• No formal rule change has been announced, though Klöckner has been engaging factions on easing conditions for young parents.
• Reaction has been sharply divided over childcare, procedures and the child’s welfare, and Steinmüller said she will keep pressing the issue of work–family compatibility.