Five elections, five direct mandates in Duisburg I, and a progression from the Health Committee through parliamentary management to the presidency of the house — and from there into government.
§ 01 · By electoral term
§ 02How it works
The following explains the institutions that structure a German member’s work — and where Bas’s documented roles fit into them.
Half of the Bundestag’s seats have traditionally been filled by constituency winners elected with the first vote (Erststimme). Bas has won Duisburg I with the most first votes at every election since 2009. Constituency work means a local office, citizens’ consultations and representing the city’s interests in Berlin.
Bills are referred to specialist committees, which hold hearings and prepare recommendations for the plenary. Her first committee was the Committee on Health — the field she had worked in professionally for over a decade.
Parliamentary Executive Directors organise their group’s business: agenda negotiations, speaking times, attendance, coordination with the other groups. Bas held this post for almost six years.
Deputy chairs lead the group’s working groups in assigned fields and speak for the group on them. Her fields were health, education and research, and petitions — the last being the committee through which citizens can address Parliament directly.
The President and Vice-Presidents chair plenary sittings in rotation; the President heads the Bundestag administration and represents Parliament. Bas held the office from 2021 to 2025.
German federal ministers usually remain members of the Bundestag. Since May 2025 Bas sits on the government bench, answers in government question time and introduces her ministry’s bills — while still representing Duisburg I.
§ 03 · Policy fields
Health. Her first parliamentary term fell into the opposition years of 2009–2013, when the SPD opposed the health-financing reforms of the CDU/CSU–FDP government. Her own professional field — statutory health insurance — gave her a technical basis that is unusual among members. Health policy
Education and research. As Deputy Group Chair from 2019, she coordinated the SPD group’s work in education and research, a field in which federal responsibility is limited by the competences of the Länder but includes vocational training, research funding and student support.
Petitions. The Petitions Committee receives tens of thousands of submissions from citizens every year. Responsibility for petitions within the group connects to the theme she would later make central to her presidency: making Parliament reachable for citizens.
Social policy. Since 2025, as minister, social and labour policy — pensions, employment, basic income support — has become her principal parliamentary subject. Labour & employment