The Landtag: The Elected Representation of the People

As in the entire Federal Republic of Germany, the state structure of the Land of Brandenburg is organised according to the principles of the separation of powers. Under the constitution of the Land of Brandenburg, the people are the bearers of state authority. They express their political will in elections and votes. The authority of the state is exercised by special legislative, executive and judicial bodies.

The Landtag has a central function in this context. As the “elected representative of the people”, it forms the centre of representative democracy. As the only constitutional body directly elected by the people, it expresses their political will in its decisions. The Landtag is the legislative body.

There are two further authorities: The executive authority implements laws. It is in the hands of the Land government, the administrative authorities and the local self-governing bodies. The judicial authority, on the other hand, is entrusted to independent judges who are bound only by statute and law.

The legislative, executive and judicial bodies act independently of each other and control each other.

As an expression of its position, the Landtag is assigned certain rights by the constitution. These include the right to self-organisation. It includes the scrutiny of elections (Article 63), the election of its committees (Articles 69 to 73), the right to adopt its own rules of procedure (Article 68) and the determination of its budget (Article 101).