New suffrage: Even within the traffic lights, the majority is wobbling

Thirty, five and "a handful".

Altogether about 40 votes.

So many MPs from the traffic light groups did not want to support their negotiators for electoral law reform late Tuesday afternoon in taking their key issues paper as the basis for further negotiations in the commission set up for this purpose.

They voted no or abstained: 30 were in the SPD parliamentary group, five in that of the Greens and a handful, i.e. around five, in the FDP.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The aim of the traffic light proposal is to end the year-long dispute over a new electoral law.

The Bundestag is to be brought back to its statutory size of 598 instead of the current 736 MPs.

The second vote should be made the decisive criterion for the distribution of seats.

Overhang mandates would be eliminated, as would compensation mandates.

The biggest point of contention emerged early on: According to the draft, candidates who received the most votes in a constituency could still not be awarded the vote.

This would be the case if your party had fewer constituencies available due to the result of the second vote than was won with the first vote.

In order to allocate the constituencies to which this applies, the three traffic light officials – Sebastian Hartmann (SPD), Till Steffen (Greens) and Konstantin Kuhle (FDP) – developed the idea of ​​creating a Simme for a “replacement candidate”.

That too is debatable, even within the traffic light.

No sooner had the clear majority of the meeting participants in all three traffic light groups voted in favor of the proposal drawn up by the representatives than the SPD, the Greens and the FDP rushed to downplay the importance of the dissenting votes.

The parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, said on Wednesday that the negotiating team had been given "clear orientation" for further talks.

The managing director of the Green Group, Irene Mihalic, also assured that the proposal had received a clear majority.

Not much could be learned about the objections and concerns that had been discussed on Tuesday evening.

Broad majority is good custom

It was heard from the FDP parliamentary group that they had not even counted whether there were enough yes votes in the three parliamentary groups for a majority in parliament.

That is still much too early, there is not even a draft law.

Instead, confidence was spread by the SPD, Greens and FDP that they would be united at the end of the process.

In fact, the draft law should not be ready until late summer.

The negotiators indicate that there will still be changes.

The openness is particularly high when it comes to the “substitute voice”.

In the coming weeks, the three traffic light factions also want to discuss other options for how a constituency that is not allocated to the winner can be allocated.

The forty skeptical deputies are a problem for the traffic light.

In the Bundestag, the coalition factions have 47 votes more than the absolute majority of 369 votes.

In the worst-case scenario, they would need it to pass a new electoral law, namely when all opposition politicians are present and no one is voting with the traffic light.

So if about forty votes are missing when voting on a key issue paper, those responsible in the traffic light must either approach the critics in their own ranks or win votes from the opposition.

The traffic light wants to seek support from the opposition.

It is actually a good practice when it comes to electoral law that the proposal comes from the middle of the Bundestag and is not implemented with a government majority.

But all previous proposals have failed, and the efforts of two Bundestag Presidents have also been fruitless.

Even at the moment there is not much to suggest that the effort is bearing fruit.

The chairman of the Union faction, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, had already said on Tuesday that the traffic light proposal was "incompatible with the Basic Law".

After all, he added that the Union is open to compromise and a common solution.

But the Union consists of the CDU and CSU.

The chairman of the CSU state group, Alexander Dobrindt, left no doubt about his displeasure.

“This traffic light proposal borders on electoral fraud with an announcement,” he said.

He threatened to go before the Federal Constitutional Court.

The Electoral Law Commission will meet again on Thursday.

More controversial debates lie ahead.