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You cannot talk about an agreement. Against the will of the opposition parties, the government has promoted an electoral reform. The expected reduction of the Bundestag probably will not bring it.
After years of disputes over reducing the size of the Bundestag, the grand coalition pushed forward its concept of electoral reform. The bill of the coalition parliamentary groups was approved with 362 votes in favor, 281 against and eight abstentions.
The FDP, the Left and the Greens strictly rejected the CDU / CSU and SPD draft because, from their point of view, it was completely inadequate to achieve the desired reduction of parliament, which had grown to 709 members. It currently has 709 MP, and it is too big, because its standard size is 598 seats.
The expansion of the Bundestag is mainly due to compensation and excess mandates. Surplus mandates occur when a party brings more direct candidates to the Bundestag than it is entitled to based on the result of the second ballot. In order not to distort the result of the second vote through the pending mandates, the other parties receive compensation mandates.
Criticism of the Greens
Under the draft now adopted, a party’s outstanding mandates must be partially offset by the mandates on its list. And if the regular variable of 598 seats is exceeded, up to three pending terms should not be offset by compensatory terms. Also, the number of 299 electoral districts should remain in the elections in one year.
“There will be no buffering effect,” said Britta Haßelmann, first managing director of the Parliament of the Greens. She spoke of “playing”. The coalition “failed miserably,” he said. “The draft is objectively inadequate for reducing the size of the Bundestag. It raises constitutional questions that are completely unresolved,” said FDP national politician Konstantin Kuhle. The decisive lever, the reduction of the number of electoral districts, is missing initially.
In contrast, Philipp Amthor of the CDU emphasized: “We have found a just constitutional model.” And: “We are relaxed about a constitutional review.” SPD deputy Mahmut Özdemir called the law an “honest solution, because it causes the least harm, because it is effective, because it is binding, because it is understandable.”
No major reform is expected until 2025
Albrecht Glaser of the AfD said he had not yet heard a “total dismantling” as in the hearing. The coalition had prevented any reform for three years. “And what little by little now united is not a reform.”
The FDP, the left, the Greens and the AfD could also feel confirmed by an opinion of the Scientific Service of the Bundestag. Certify that the CDU / CSU and SPD model has little effect. Based on the outcome of the 2017 Bundestag elections, it would have been possible to reduce the total number of seats to 682 MPs, he says. The regulation would have “generated savings of up to 27 deputies.”
A major reform, then also with a reduction in the number of electoral districts, should, according to the coalition, only take place in the 2025 elections. To this end, a reform commission will be constituted made up of scientists, parliamentarians and other members which will present a result no later than June 30, 2023.
