For years, the right to vote has been a constant topic in the Bundestag, which has recently become larger and larger from election to election. In January, the traffic light groups presented a first draft for a reform. Criticism of the proposal was recently followed by a revised recast. The Bundestag wants to vote on this Friday.
What does the electoral reform look like?
Lukas Fuhr
Editor in politics.
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Tim Niendorf
Political editor.
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Helene Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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The traffic light is sticking to its plan to reduce the number of members of the Bundestag. There will be 630 seats in the future, which is 32 more than initially planned. The seats are distributed on the basis of the second vote result. It remains the case that in the future not every constituency winner will move into the Bundestag, but only as many members of a game as it is entitled to according to the result of the second votes. The constituency winners with the weakest results within the party could then be left out. In addition, the so-called basic mandate clause, according to which parties are represented in parliament according to their second vote result, if they achieve less than five percent of these votes, but have won at least three constituencies directly.
Why did the traffic light change its design at short notice?
The fact that constituencies could remain without directly elected deputies in the future had provoked criticism after the presentation of the originally planned electoral reform. In order for this case to occur as rarely as possible, the traffic light now wants to increase the number of seats slightly. The SPD politician Sebastian Hartmann justified the abolition of the basic mandate clause to the F.A.Z., among other things, with the fact that experts appointed by the CDU and CSU had expressed criticism of the clause. "In the end, we considered the constitutional risk of maintaining them to be higher. The planned clear distribution of mandates therefore makes the new electoral law even more conclusive and less vulnerable," he told the F.A.Z. The traffic light had clearly opted for the principle of proportional representation.
Why is the criticism of the CSU and the Left Party so sharp?
The Left Party won only 2021.4 percent of the second votes in the 9 federal election, so failed at the five percent hurdle. The basic mandate clause nevertheless allowed the party to enter parliament with 39 deputies. Three of their direct candidates were able to win a constituency (all in Berlin). That was just enough for the clause to take effect. Until now, a party won at least three direct mandates, it was still entitled to seats according to the second vote result.
Polls saw the party last still at four to five percent. In other words, without a basic mandate clause, the party must fear all the more that it will be kicked out of the Bundestag in the next election. The parliamentary leader of the Left Party, Dietmar Bartsch, therefore makes a harsh verdict: "This is an open attack on the Left Party."
The CSU is also beside itself. Its chairman Markus Söder calls the reform "very undemocratic". The reason: The CSU could also fail in the future at the five percent hurdle. In 2021, the party, which only competes in Bavaria, received 5.2 percent nationwide, as little as never before. With 45 of 46 constituencies won in Bavaria, however, she would have entered the Bundestag with less than five percent thanks to the basic mandate clause. In the future, even these won direct mandates would not be enough. In extreme cases, all 46 constituency winners in Bavaria could go away empty-handed if the CSU fails nationwide at the five-percent hurdle. Even Bartsch of the Left Party describes this as "an absurdity".