State elections: Brandenburg places women and men on parity

The Brandenburg state parliament has passed a regulation that will ensure more gender equality on the candidate lists of the parties in the future.

In state elections, these must be filled in equal proportions with women and men. The directive will come into force in the summer of 2020 - so it does not apply to the upcoming state election on 1 September this year. The parliament voted with the votes of the red-red government factions and the Greens for the amendment of the electoral law.

Accordingly, the competent party committees must first prepare separate electoral lists for men and women for a state election. Subsequently, the actual choice list is populated alternately from both lists, after it has been decided which gender gets the top list place. Candidates who do not belong to either the male or the female gender are free to decide whether to run for the men's or women's lists.

Pure male party theoretically possible

The establishment of direct candidates is not affected by the new regulation. The law provides for an exception to the equal number of electoral lists for parties or political associations "who only wish to receive and represent one gender in accordance with the statutes". Thus, a pure male or female party would be conceivable.

The left-chair Katja Kipping praised the Brandenburg regulation as "a great contribution to something that should have long been normality". It is also at the federal level "high time for an electoral law at the federal level". At least every second place in the list for the Bundestag election must be filled by a woman - the left has been practicing this for a long time. "Others can do that too," said Kipping convinced.

The women's political spokeswoman of the Greens in the Bundestag, Ulle Schauws, also acknowledged the decision in Brandenburg. The new law is "a first step towards equal access for women in politics".

The Brandenburg opposition factions of CDU and AfD voted against the law. They consider it unconstitutional, because they interfere with the right to vote inadmissibly.