Berlin: A left-wing member of German parliament disciplined for refusing to wear a neck-tie defended himself on Friday by saying most of his constituents don't wear ties either.
Andrej Hunko, an MP for the Left party, and Greens party MP Sven-Christian Kindler were relieved of their duties as recording secretaries after they ignored demands by parliament leaders to wear neckties while sitting on the president's dais.
"I'm a freely elected representative and don't represent the Bundestag," Hunko, who wears a blazer, told German radio. "It's an expression of hierarchy. I don't want to isolate myself from my voters. Most of them don't wear a neck-tie either."
MPs are not required to wear ties in parliament but they are obligated to wear them when they sit on the president's dais in front of parliament -- and can be seen on television.
The controversy came to a head on Thursday after another Left Party MP assigned to replace Hunko, Alexander Suessmair, strode to his post as a recording secretary without a tie.
Suessmair was quickly removed from the position next to parliament president Norbert Lammert. He was replaced by another Left party colleague Agnes Alpers. She wore a blazer and a red tie around her neck.
The sartorial debate started in December when secretaries' chairman Jens Koeppen of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats sent a letter to deputies requiring men to wear a tie and jacket.
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