Germany's parliament rejected Thursday a plan to set a women's quota on corporate boards, an issue that has stirred passionate debate in the country and forced Chancellor Angela Merkel to reverse her position in the middle of an election campaign. In a 320-277 split, the Bundestag lower house rejected a bill previously adopted by the opposition-controlled Bundesrat upper house which would set a women's quota of 40 per cent in phases starting from 2023.
A parliamentary report before the vote said that at Germany's top 200 enterprises, women currently have only 10 to 17 per cent of the seats on supervisory boards, the topmost layer of corporate governance. Merkel, who had previously said business should voluntarily raise women's presence at the top, suddenly committed earlier this week to a boardroom quota from 2020 - a move that angered business groups and conservatives, who see it as unwarranted government intrusion into the economy. The chancellor's hand was forced by the threat of a split in her Christian Democratic bloc. Political handlers feared Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen and other liberals would laud the quota, giving a propaganda victory to the opposition.