Even if the traffic light groups have in principle supported the proposals of a small group of MPs from their ranks for a reform of the Bundestag electoral law, the last word has not been spoken.
If not the way, then the goal alone is likely to spoil some parliamentarians' desire for the revision, which has been overdue for years.
Because if it were to be determined that the minimum number of seats of 598 MPs anchored in the Basic Law should also be the maximum number, then the Bundestag to be elected in 2025 would have 138 MPs or almost a fifth fewer than at present.
The SPD would be doubly affected
With regard to the compensation mandates, the reduction would affect all parties equally, including the Greens and the FDP.
However, the SPD would be doubly affected.
Among the politicians who would lose their mandates even though they would have won their constituency directly, there might not only be those from the CDU and CSU, but also established Social Democrats.
That wouldn't be nice, but it's probably the price that the SPD has to pay for having been loyal to the coalition since 2013 and working alongside the Union to prevent any substantial reform.
Letting the Greens and FDP run aground again is out of the question for them, not only for tactical reasons, but also for moral ones.
Because that would mean making another pact with the Union, which for years has placed its interests above the welfare of parliamentary democracy.