Stefan Pieper, the former chief legal advisor at the Federal Presidential Office, has raised constitutional concerns regarding the planned government reshuffle announced by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the CDU. According to Pieper, the proper procedure would be for the handover of official duties and government business to only occur after the new officials have taken the oath. He stressed to the “Rheinische Post” that assuming full government responsibilities without having been duly sworn in would be “constitutionally unclean.” Pieper concluded that the proper course of action would be to call for a special session of the Bundestag.
Pieper reflected that, to his memory, the specific scenario of a minister being appointed but unable to take the oath in the Bundestag due to the parliamentary summer recess has never happened before. Nonetheless, he noted that the official acts carried out by a non-sworn-in incumbent are considered “legally valid” according to prevailing opinion. Another possible route, he suggested, would be to rely on the government’s existing rules of representation until the new ministers are formally sworn in.
The cabinet restructuring announced by Friedrich Merz is scheduled to be finalized formally in the coming week. However, the CDU has recently indicated a desire to avoid holding a costly special session during the summer recess.
