The big problem of German parliamentarianism is, for example, Jürgen Hardt: 59 years old, a member of the CDU and a member of parliament from the constituency of Solingen-Remscheid-Wuppertal.

Justus Bender

Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The dubious thing about Hardt isn't his suitability as a politician, it has to be good, otherwise he wouldn't be the foreign policy spokesman for his parliamentary group.

Nor was he guilty of anything.

It's just the way he got his mandate, namely via a so-called compensatory mandate.

That's what parties get when others get too many direct mandates, for example the CSU.

They often get more direct mandates than they are entitled to after the second votes, which is called the overhang mandate.

And because that is an unfair advantage, the other parties are given as many mandates by the Federal Returning Officer until the relationship is right again.

These are the balancing mandates.

Hardt has one.

He started in North Rhine-Westphalia at number 22 on the list, but the CDU only got enough votes for the candidates up to number 15 on the list. Then the federal returning officer gave the CDU seven more seats, and lo and behold: Hardt was in.

And with him 138 others, across all parties.

Instead of 598 seats, the Bundestag suddenly had 736, which was so many that it was trembling for a while whether the Bundestag could find enough chairs.

"As a rule, it's not the rooms that fail"

Because of this inflation, Wolfgang Schäuble said years ago that the Bundestag had applied to the building authority in Berlin-Mitte for permission to set up office containers.

Members of parliament should be stacked with their offices next to the Reichstag building like overseas freight at the port of Hamburg.

"That really just shows how urgent it is," Schäuble said at the time.

Since then, it has been common political knowledge that the Bundestag is too big.

Representatives of all parties have already said so.

Sometimes horror scenarios are calculated, there is talk of a Bundestag with 1000 MPs.

It's not just about a lack of offices, but also about backbenchers without tasks, overcrowded committees and a parliament unable to work, in which every member still gets 10,000 euros a month.

Who wouldn't see that as a problem?

It can be communicated well.

SPD, FDP and Greens have promised a reform, even against the resistance of the Union.

Next Thursday, the electoral law commission of the Bundestag will present a key issues paper that will contain many ideas on how the Bundestag can be made smaller.

How urgently this is necessary is hardly ever questioned, but the answer is surprising.

First of all, there is the Bundestag administration, which gives the all-clear.

"It usually doesn't fail because of the rooms," says a spokesman.

Since Schäuble started planning with containers, the Bundestag has added 400 offices.

The Bundestag's IT department, which is housed in a prefabricated building, may have a problem with space.

On average, however, every member of parliament gets three offices for himself and his employees, each office has an average of 16 square meters.

Even experienced members of parliament do not see the problem in size alone.