So far there has been no progress in the talks between Ampel and the Union about reforming the electoral law.

A new Union proposal is unacceptable from the point of view of the SPD, Greens and FDP, so that the draft law of the three government factions will probably go to the first reading next Friday.

Next Tuesday it is to be decided by the FDP and Greens parliamentary groups, the SPD group had already approved on Tuesday with a large majority.

The traffic light proposal stipulates that the size of the Bundestag is fixed at 598 MPs and overhang mandates are not awarded.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

The Union considers this proposal to be unconstitutional because a constituency winner no longer automatically wins a mandate, and instead proposed reducing the number of constituencies from 299 to 270, 15 overhang mandates should not be compensated and the basic mandate clause increased from three to five direct mandates will.

So far, this has provided that a party that fails to meet the five percent clause can still send MPs to the Bundestag according to its second vote result if it has won at least three direct mandates.

Union wants to abolish compensation mandates

On Thursday there were meetings at the level of the group leaders of Union and Ampel, later at the level of the rapporteurs.

But there is no rapprochement, for which Union and traffic lights blame each other.

"After the first talks, I don't have the impression that there is much willingness to negotiate about our model on the part of the traffic light," said Thorsten Frei, parliamentary director of the Union faction, the FAZ and assured: "Nevertheless, we will continue to look for a solution that can be supported by all parties, as has always been good parliamentary practice in the past.” The Union's proposal does not give up the principle of personalized proportional representation and at the same time significantly reduces the size of the Bundestag.

The grand coalition had already decided in the last legislative period to reduce the number of constituencies from 299 to 280.

This change will take effect in the next Bundestag elections, unless the Bundestag decides on another reform beforehand.

For months, a constituency commission headed by the Federal Returning Officer has been working on a proposal for a new design.

For the elimination of 19 constituencies, a total of 124 others would have to be changed.

This is already causing some unrest among MPs.

According to traffic light calculations, an agreement on 270 constituencies would save only around twenty mandates.

The effects of a second change proposed by the Union would be significantly greater: the elimination of compensation mandates for up to 15 overhang mandates.

It is already the case that up to three overhang mandates will not be compensated.

In the last election, there were 34 overhang mandates (including 12 for the CDU and 11 for the CSU), which led to 104 compensatory mandates.

Greens: “Blatant falsification of majorities”

In a decision from 2012, the Federal Constitutional Court expressly declared that not compensating for up to 15 overhang mandates was constitutional.

The result is that the composition of the Bundestag is no longer based on the result of the second vote, and the partial elimination of equalization mandates worsens the position of the FDP, Greens and Left Party, who did not achieve any overhang mandates in the last election.

Increasing the basic mandate clause to five direct mandates reduces the chances of the left entering the Bundestag with the strength of a faction.

She only got 4.9 percent of the second votes in 2021, but won three constituencies directly.

The traffic light factions are unanimous in their rejection of the Union proposal.

Dirk Wiese, deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, wrote on Twitter: “The proposal looks like it was knitted with a hot needle.

As a result, it leads to a continued one-sided advantage of the CSU.

It's becoming increasingly clear: A real electoral law reform cannot be done with the Union as long as the CDU is held hostage by the CSU.” Till Steffen, the Greens' rapporteur, accused the Union of solving the problems at the expense of the other parties.

The abolition of the compensation mandates "leads to a blatant distortion of the majority," said Steffen of the FAZ

Konstantin Kuhle, deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, saw it as a "good sign" that the Union was willing to talk.

However, he also complained to the FAZ that new rules for the composition of the Bundestag must not lead to “one party being unilaterally preferred”.