First Deaf Lawmaker In German Parliament Keeps Her Seat

AUGSBURG (Germany), Feb 24 (Bernama-dpa) -- The first deaf lawmaker in the German parliament, Social Democrat Heike Heubach, will serve in the lower house for another four years, according to preliminary results on Monday, reported German news agency dpa.

Heubach, who ran in the southern state of Bavaria, a stronghold of the conservatives who emerged as the clear winner of Sunday's vote, narrowly made it in as the last candidate on the Social Democrats' state party list, after they only secured 14 seats in Bavaria overall.

Nationwide, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz achieved their worst result in a federal election to date with 16.4 per cent, down from 25.7 per cent in the last federal election in 2021.

Heubach, 45, initially missed out on a seat in parliament in the 2021 election, but last year, the trained industrial clerk took the place of a party colleague who left the Bundestag (the lower house of parliament). 

Sign language interpreters are available to Heubach in parliament to help her carry out her work.

"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the voters for the trust they have placed in me in this election," Heubach said in a statement published by the SPD on Monday.

"It is a great honour for me to continue to represent the interests of our region and the political goals of the SPD in the Bundestag," she added.

-- BERNAMA-dpa