Political Organization

MPs are elected as members of a political party. Together with their fellow party members they form a parliamentary group. One of the group members is elected chairman. There is usually also a deputy chairman and a secretary. Each group decides itself how it is to be organised.

In order to be able to do their work properly, MPs get support from the parliamentary group they belong to and they also have a personal assistant who deals with the post, answers e-mails and attends to all kinds of matters. Moreover, the parliamentary group provides for office workers, information officers, policy staff and a professional secretary. The latter's duties may differ from one parliamentary group to another, but initially, it is always the secretary who is the contact person for the administration.