In the final debate on the planned downsizing of the Bundestag, opposition politicians accused the traffic light factions of having tailor-made electoral rights to stay in power.
Sebastian Hartmann (SPD) said before the planned vote on the reform in the Bundestag that the aim of the project was “a simple, comprehensible right to vote”.
The project is strictly rejected by the Union and the Left Party. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt said the plan was aimed at pushing the left out of parliament and calling “the CSU’s right to exist” into question. “You are making a reform for yourself here” in order to cement the “traffic light’s claim to power,” he accused Hartmann.
According to the draft, a strict five percent clause should apply
With the reform, the Bundestag, which has grown to 736 MPs, is to be permanently reduced to 630 seats from the next election. The reduction is to be achieved by completely dispensing with overhang and equalization mandates. So far, these have caused the Bundestag to be bloated. Overhang mandates arise when a party wins more seats in the Bundestag via direct mandates than it is entitled to based on the result of the second vote. You can keep those seats. The other parties receive compensatory mandates in return. According to the new rules, it could happen in the future that an applicant wins his constituency directly, but still does not get into the Bundestag. This angers the CSU in particular.
In addition, according to the draft, a strict five percent clause should apply. The basic mandate clause does not apply. So far, it has ensured that parties with the strength of their second vote result in the Bundestag also entered the Bundestag if they were less than five percent but won at least three direct mandates. The Left Party benefited from this in 2021. If the clause is deleted, depending on the election result, this could also have consequences for the CSU in the future.
Originally, the traffic light even wanted to reduce Parliament back to the target size of 598 MPs. After the Union had rejected the first proposal from the SPD, Greens and FDP, which did not include the deletion of the basic mandate clause, the traffic light presented the new variant. That is the work of the SPD, which hopes to benefit from it, according to the motto “first the party, then the public good,” said Albrecht Glaser (AfD). The parliamentary secretary of the left-wing faction, Jan Korte, announced a lawsuit against the reform before the Federal Constitutional Court.
