democracy
Wahl-O-Mat for the Bundestag election starts-29 parties
Consider, reject or behave neutrally 38 times: The Wahl-O-Mat should make the election decision easier-and especially mobilize a target group.
The decision-making aid Wahl-O-Mat of the Federal Center for Political Education (BPB) for the Bundestag election on February 23 is now online. “No other instrument of political education is used as strongly as the Wahl-O-Mat,” said BPB President Thomas Krüger at a press conference in Berlin shortly before the website was online. In the Bundestag election 2021, the offer was used over 21 million times.
Top politicians such as FDP general secretary Marco Buschmann or the left-wing top candidate Heidi Reichinnek were also on site to switch the election O-Mat online and tried it out.
With the online tool, voters can compare their own position with all 29 parties in 38 theses. You can agree to the theses, reject them, position themselves neutrally or skip them. Finally, a percentage shows the degree of agreement.
President of the Federal Center: Controversy topics are shown
Krüger emphasized that it was a balancing act to map all relevant topics and treat all parties fairly. Many current controversy, such as on the subjects of migration, Ukraine war or economy, would find themselves in the Wahl-O-Mat with appropriate theses. “You can’t say that the Wahl-O-Mat was blind in any place,” said Krüger.
He underlined that the decision -making aid should also mobilize young people for the federal election. “We live in a demographic imbalance and it is particularly important that young people also use their right to vote and represent their interests.”
Significantly less preparation time for the editorial team
The Wahl-O-Mat has been around since 2002. According to BPB, the theses are developed by a youth editorial team in close coordination with experts. This year, the editorial team remained significantly less time to prepare instead of the usual three quarters of the year because of the early Bundestag election. The online questionnaire as well as the federal center as a whole are financed from taxpayers’ money.
In addition to the offer of the Federal Center, there are now many other websites on the Internet to help with the election decision. The Real-O-Mat from the online portal “Ask the State”, for example, compensates for the behavior of the parties in the Bundestag with past votes with the positions of the users. Other tools such as Wahl.chat or either according to their own information work with artificial intelligence and are intended to provide access to party programs by chat.
Wahl-O-Mat for the Bundestag election 2025
dpa
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
