In early November, a wave of simultaneous political developments created a surge of uncertainty and many debates. At first the election of Trump was announced, only hours later the current governing coalition from SPD (social democratic political party), Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (green political party) and FDP (liberal political party) in German also referred to as Ampel (traffic light) broke apart. Subsequently, the Minister for Research and Education, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, resigned.

The project of reforming the WisszeitVG, the bill which sets the legal framework for fixed-term employment in academia, was part of the agenda of the Ampel-coalition. With its early end it is more uncertain than ever, what might happen now.

In the last step of the reform, the First Reading of the reform took place in the parliament (Bundestag) in October. From there it was referred to the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment of the parliament for further review. 

As the hearing in the committee was already scheduled before the break-up of the coalition, it took place as planned on 13. November. Members of all political parties were present and able to ask questions addressed to six experts, consisting of representatives from the trade union (DGB), Max-Planck Society, the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat), and German U15. Interestingly, there was no representative of PhDs or postdocs, the group most affected by the bill. Instead, many groups and networks representing early-career researchers send in statements unsolicited, which were distributed and acknowledged.