The controversial electoral law reform to reduce the size of the Bundestag can come into force. The Federal Council allowed the project to pass. But it should end up in Karlsruhe.
The Bundesrat has allowed the controversial electoral law reform to downsize the Bundestag to pass. In the state chamber in Berlin there was no majority for Bavaria’s application to call the mediation committee. This means that the project, which does not require approval in the Bundesrat, can come into force. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced that the Free State would take legal action before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
The project is politically wrong, unconstitutional and splits Germany. “Whole regions are disadvantaged and excluded,” said Söder in the Federal Council. Criticism also came from Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU). He called the law “bad” and “wrong”. It is a pity for parliamentary and democracy in general.
Future 630 MPs in the Bundestag
The aim of the reform is to limit the number of deputies to 630 in the Bundestag, which has now grown to 736 deputies. This is to be achieved by abolishing the so-called overhang and compensation mandates and the so-called basic mandate clause.
Overhang mandates arise when a party wins more direct mandates through first votes than it is entitled to seats based on the result of the second vote. In order to restore the balance of power between the parties after second votes, these overhangs have so far been filled with compensatory mandates. That made the Bundestag bigger and bigger.
Abolition of the basic mandate clause
If, in the future, a party wins more direct mandates than it is entitled to based on the result of the second vote, the electoral law reform should reduce the number of direct candidates from the back: Those with the weakest result would no longer get a seat in the Bundestag, which would then eliminate the need to fill up with equalizing mandates to restore the balance of power.
The so-called basic mandate clause is also to be abolished. So far, this has made it possible for parties to get into the Bundestag with the strength of their second vote result if they land below the five percent hurdle but win at least three direct mandates. The Left Party benefited from this in 2021. The CSU came to 5.2 percent in 2021, but won almost all direct mandates in Bavaria. The CSU and CDU form a parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
The Bundestag passed the reform in mid-March with the votes of the SPD, FDP and Greens under sharp protest from the Union and the left.
Source: Stern
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