評(píng)論
打印
Germany's parliament
德國議會(huì)
Order, order!
命令不止
Many Germans crave a less boring Bundestag, including its own president
即便是總統(tǒng)也渴望議院不再那么無聊
Gripped by question time
被提問時(shí)間緊抓不放
GERMANY'S parliament, the Bundestag, has produced some memorable moments over the years. Whether they qualify as oratory is less clear. In 1984 a young Joschka Fischer (nobody dreamt of a Green foreign minister just 14 years later) yelled: “With your permission, Mr President, you are an arsehole!” Herbert Wehner, a leading member in the 1960s and 70s, told one opponent to “go wash yourself first” and another that “you are a pig, do you know that?”
德國議會(huì)，即聯(lián)邦議會(huì)在過去幾年有過一些難忘的時(shí)刻。對(duì)于他們是否符合演講這一點(diǎn)尚不明確。在1984年一位名叫約什卡·費(fèi)舍爾的年輕人（沒人會(huì)想到他會(huì)在那14年之后當(dāng)上外交部長(zhǎng)）呼喊：“總統(tǒng)先生，你就是個(gè)混蛋！”上世紀(jì)60年代至70年代領(lǐng)軍人物赫伯特·維納警告一個(gè)對(duì)手“先洗干凈了再來”，又稱另一個(gè)對(duì)手“你特么就是一頭豬你造嗎？”
Those members attempting wit—and there are some—face a more humdrum reality. Often they address a chamber that is mostly empty. Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers, if present at all, sit diagonally behind the orators, so that they can ignore them and catch up on some reading. This may explain why many of Berlin's political wonks go online for their thrills, watching prime minister's questions in Britain's House of Commons. How else to have fun?
那些領(lǐng)軍人物們用僅剩的一些智慧來面另一個(gè)更加單調(diào)的現(xiàn)實(shí)。他們經(jīng)常在一個(gè)幾乎空無一人的屋子里演講。總理安吉拉·默克爾和她的部長(zhǎng)們?nèi)绻鱿说脑捯话銜?huì)坐在演說者的斜后面，這樣他們就可以忽略那些演說家并且可以自己閱讀自己的。這或許可以解釋為什么很多柏林的政治家們喜歡在網(wǎng)上看著總理在英國下議院提問時(shí)自娛自樂。除了這樣他們還有別的方式來尋開心嗎？
Certainly not during the two Bundestag slots allotted to “question time”. One, on the first Wednesday of a parliamentary session, is billed as an interrogation of the government. But the government chooses the topic, the opposition must submit questions in writing the preceding Friday and ministers usually dispatch minions to read out replies. The second, also on Wednesdays, is meant to be more spontaneous but in practice turns out much the same.
當(dāng)然這不是在議會(huì)設(shè)置的兩個(gè)“提問時(shí)間”期間。一個(gè)“提問時(shí)間”是一個(gè)議會(huì)期的第一個(gè)周三，這被稱為政府的審訊。但是是由政府選擇主題，反對(duì)黨必須在之后的星期五寫出要提交的問題，然后部長(zhǎng)一般分派手下宣讀答復(fù)。第二個(gè)“提問時(shí)間”也是在星期三，這原本是更加自發(fā)自由的，但實(shí)踐證明意義與前者沒什么區(qū)別。
In April Norbert Lammert, the Bundestag's president, called these question periods the “weakest part of German parliamentary democracy” and “politically meaningless”. Last month he went from cranky to irate when, on one occasion, not a single cabinet member turned up. Another no-show, he let it be known, and he would call the charade off.
在四月議會(huì)主席諾貝特·拉默特將這些“提問時(shí)間”為“德國議會(huì)民主最大的弱點(diǎn)”并且“毫無政治意義”。當(dāng)上個(gè)月無人出席議會(huì)時(shí)，他開始暴走了。第二次時(shí)，他便將此公之于眾且不找任何借口偽裝了。
The opposition, which has just one-fifth of the seats against the grand coalition's four-fifths, wants to change the format to make it more like Westminster, with direct questioning of the chancellor and her ministers. Unthinkable, for that would make politics a “show”, counters Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, the largest party. (Mr Lammert is also a Christian Democrat, but the Bundestag is his focus of loyalty.) So here is a modest proposal: if witty repartee is out of the question, why not take a leaf out of the Ukrainian or Italian parliament's book and go straight to the fisticuffs?
僅占五分之一席位的反對(duì)黨來反對(duì)五分之四的大聯(lián)盟，這五分之一希望能改變議會(huì)形式使之更像威斯敏斯特，可以更直接的向總理和部長(zhǎng)提問。這個(gè)情形難以想象，因?yàn)檫@將使政治變成了一場(chǎng)“作秀”來抵制默克爾領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的最大黨派基民盟。（拉默特也是基民盟黨員，但是議會(huì)才是他效忠的重心。）因此得出了一個(gè)小小的建議：若已不能理智對(duì)話，為何不效仿烏克蘭和意大利，亮出拳頭一決雌雄？譯者：邵夏沁 校對(duì)：顧佳慧
譯文屬譯生譯世
