Former Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble sharply criticized the traffic light coalition’s proposal for electoral law reform.
“A system is being created here that is designed to deceive and disappoint the voter. It is suggested to him that he can choose his constituency candidates directly – in the end, the candidate may not even get into parliament,” said the CDU politician to the “Spiegel “. Such “misleading of voters” is also a constitutional problem.
Today the Bundestag will vote on the electoral law reform. There are currently 736 MPs sitting there. The proposal by the SPD, Greens and FDP provides for the Bundestag to be permanently reduced to 630 seats from the next election. Among other things, there should be no more overhang and compensation mandates in the future. The so-called basic mandate clause should also be dropped. It means that a party also enters the Bundestag based on its second vote result if it has missed the five percent hurdle but has won at least three direct mandates.
Traffic light is expected to have a majority
Schäuble said of the reform proposal: “It looks like a targeted attack on the CSU and thus against a party that has played a key role in shaping our democracy in Parliament for 70 years.”
For the reform, the federal election law must be amended. The traffic light will probably decide this with its majority. Schäuble said that the Union would have to sue if there was a corresponding decision in the Bundestag. “This project must be stopped.” CDU leader Friedrich Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder had recently threatened to sue the Federal Constitutional Court.
As President of the Bundestag, Schäuble had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to find a solution with the parliamentary groups to downsize the Bundestag.
