The exceptional success of the CSU is largely due to its dual role in federal and state politics. In Bavaria, it can thus act as the only party with a federal political grip, in Berlin it can get a disproportionate amount out of it for the Free State. To this day, this is a nuisance to many, even in the sister party CDU. Just ask Wolfgang Schäuble.
Helene Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
- Follow I follow
Timo Frasch
Political correspondent in Munich.
- Follow I follow
However, the CSU's business model is now being endangered by the traffic light government with its plans for electoral reform – at least that's how they see it in the CSU. Should the CSU not get over the five-percent hurdle in the federal territory with its second vote result in Bavaria in the future, it would no longer be represented in the Bundestag, even if it won each of the 46 direct mandates in the Free State. At least that's what the traffic light government intends to do by deleting the basic mandate clause. This stipulates that a party comes to parliament according to its second share of votes, even if it has failed at the five-percent hurdle.
The CSU is alarmed. The head of the CSU land group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, told the F.A.Z.: "We have never needed it: But they want to abolish the double net for the CSU and other parties." From his point of view, this would have a massive impact on the entire Union: "If the CSU is not represented in the Bundestag, the CDU is no longer capable of governing."
Merz and Dobrindt outraged
Dobrindt said that he considered the traffic light project unconstitutional because a party that is politically anchored in a region according to the direct mandates must be represented in the Bundestag. This emerges from a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court from the nineties. He also considers the plans "maximally disrespectful and unfair in terms of democratic theory". The traffic light allows any respect in dealing with each other. This is a threat to democracy and will "have long-lasting consequences". He had tried very hard to reach an agreement in the talks, but the traffic light was "inspired by the idea of having found a model that only harms the opposition."
CDU chairman Friedrich Merz agreed with him in a joint press statement on Tuesday: The electoral law envisaged by the traffic lights was "an electoral law directed against the Union," it was directed "specifically against the CSU." Michael Frieser, legal advisor of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, is of the opinion that a basic mandate clause can also be inserted under the "questionable capping system" now sought. If a party has won three, four or five mandates directly, the elected representatives could move to the top of the list even with a result of less than five percent – and from this candidates would then move into the Bundestag according to the second vote result.
The astonishing genesis of the reform proposal includes another interesting detail: the impetus to abolish the basic mandate clause came from legal experts in the Union. In the hearing on electoral law at the beginning of February, Stefanie Schmahl, a law teacher from Würzburg, said that it was "constitutionally doubtful" to leave the basic mandate clause in the new electoral law, saying that it was "alien to the system" and could "not be justified without legal contradiction". Similar to Schmahl, the expert Philipp Austermann, who has also been named by the Union, also saw it: In the new electoral law, "the basic mandate clause is constitutionally no longer tenable."
It's also about credibility
The lawyers have one point: According to the new system, a victory in the constituency does not guarantee entry into the Bundestag. The seat must also belong to the party according to the result of the second votes. The basic mandate clause actually no longer really fits in with this, because it is based on the idea of classic direct mandates. Three constituency winners not only give themselves a mandate, but also other list candidates according to the proportion of second votes.