Sven Lehmann, a member of the Bundestag from Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, has been elected as the new chair of the Committee on Culture and the Media. The decision was made on Wednesday during the committee's constituent meeting, which was chaired by Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU).

Lehmann, who is an alternate member of the committee, received 13 out of 17 votes cast in a secret ballot. Three members voted against him and one abstained. The committee has a total of 18 full members.

In the run-up to the election, the AfD parliamentary group asked about the legal admissibility of electing a deputy committee member as chairperson. Bundestag President Klöckner clarified that this was permitted under the Bundestag's rules of procedure and that there were already previous examples of comparable cases.

The Committee on Culture and the Media is made up of members from all parliamentary groups: The CDU/CSU has six members, the SPD and AfD four each. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke are each represented by two MPs.

The members in detail:

• CDU/CSUMelanie Bernstein, Ellen Demuth, Michael Hose, Ottilie Klein, Pascal Reddig, Anja Weisgerber

• AfDGötz Frömming, Ronald Gläser, Matthias Helferich, Martin Erwin Renner

• SPDNancy Faeser, Franziska Kersten, Helge Lindh, Martin Rabanus

• Alliance 90/The GreensKatrin Göring-Eckardt, Awet Tesfaiesus

• The LeftGregor Gysi, David Schliesing

With his election, Sven Lehmann now takes on a central role in the cultural policy work of the parliament.