For decades he was no longer in the Bundestag, now he’s back: the Südschleswigsche Voters’ Association (SSW), the minority party from Schleswig-Holstein. Your top candidate wants to do more for his state and minorities – and Scandinavian values.
For the first time in around 70 years, the Südschleswigsche Voters’ Association (SSW) is returning to the Bundestag with a member. The party of the Danish minority and the national Frisians had taken part in a federal election for the first time in 60 years. As a party of the national minority, it is excluded from the five percent hurdle and only had to win so many votes that it is entitled to a seat according to the calculation process. The SSW could only be elected in Schleswig-Holstein.
Already early in the evening, projections saw the SSW with a member of the Bundestag. The SSW did the math itself at the election party in Flensburg and around 10:20 p.m. was convinced that it would work. SSW candidate Stefan Seidler stepped to the microphone to the cheers of his supporters and announced: “We are in. A mandate. Now we have to deal with very wild things if it doesn’t work out.” The SSW could be an independent voice for the minorities, for Schleswig-Holstein and put its finger in the wound “if we come up short again,” said Seidler.
Stefan Seidler: Hobby DJ with close ties to Denmark
The Flensburg Seidler – a representative of the Danish minority – will formally sit in the Bundestag as a non-attached MP for the SSW. The 41-year-old has been Denmark coordinator for the state government in Schleswig-Holstein since 2014. Before that he was a political advisor in southern Denmark and an EU program manager. He was also a civic member of the council in Flensburg.
Seidler has attended several Danish schools and studied political communication in Aarhus, among others. His hobbies include long-distance running, concerts, traveling, DIY and cooking. He also enjoys being a hobby DJ.
He stood up for the federal election because he “sees again and again how decisions are made over our heads. As a child of the minority and“ Flensburg young ”, that bothers me,” he writes on the. In Berlin he wanted to concentrate on regional development. He also wanted to bring the minorities more frequently on the federal political agenda, with an “Alliance for the North” that he wanted to forge. In a humorous election commercial, he promoted his party and these issues:
Seidler also wants to stand up for “Scandinavian values” such as trust, respect and equality in the Bundestag. He lives these values. These would form the “basis for a modern society”. “You don’t have to invent the wheel twice, you should adopt good practical examples, also and especially from Denmark.”
SSW wants an earlier coal phase-out, speed limit and higher minimum wage
As a party of minorities, the SSW took part in the federal election with the aim of campaigning for minority politics and the state of Schleswig-Holstein in the federal government. In addition, the SSW demands in its inter alia:
- Faster implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate protection and a socially acceptable and faster coal phase-out before 2038
- Expansion of local public transport and rail transport; Speed limit of 130 km / h on motorways
- In the long term, hospitals are to be returned to municipal and public hands
- A system change in long-term care insurance to a citizen insurance
- Reduction of the workload in nursing
- Better care for people with mental illness
- Increase in the minimum wage to 13 euros per hour
- Increase the proportion of women in management positions
- Lowering the voting age to 16 years
SSW exempted from the 5 percent clause
The SSW has been a fixture in Schleswig-Holstein for decades and is represented in the state parliament and many local parliaments. From 2012 to 2017, the party was also involved in the state government. The SSW was founded in 1948 by order of the British military government to represent the interests of the Danish minority. When it was founded, the national Frisians in North Frisia also joined the party. The five percent clause introduced in 1950 initially also applied to the SSW. In connection with the Bonn-Copenhagen Declaration of 1955, which laid down the protection of minorities on both sides of the German-Danish border, the SSW was exempted from the five percent clause.
For the SSW it is a return to the Bundestag after a very long time. In 1949, Hermann Clausen was the only member to date to enter parliament for one legislative period. In 1961 the party decided not to run for the federal parliament any more. Since then, a comeback has been discussed regularly, but always rejected by a majority. In September 2020, a party congress then voted by a majority to participate in the 2021 federal election.
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