Federal President Steinmeier signs controversial electoral law reform – Union announces imminent lawsuit

Zoom Image

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa

The parties struggled for months, now the controversial electoral reform to reduce the size of the Bundestag is about to come into force. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has signed the law, as the Office of the Federal President announced. This now only has to be published in the Federal Law Gazette.

Union wants to file a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court

However, Steinmeier's signing does not put an end to the political dispute over the reform. The CDU/CSU has already announced its intention to appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court against the new electoral law: "I regret that the Federal President has not used his opportunities to work towards a fair and constitutional electoral law. We will immediately file a lawsuit against this disrespectful law and this manipulation of the electoral law of the traffic light with the Constitutional Court," said the chairman of the CSU state group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt. We will pull out all the stops to stop this manipulation of electoral law," he added. The Left Party also feels disadvantaged by the reform and considers it incompatible with the Basic Law.

The law was passed by the Bundestag in March with the votes of the SPD, Greens, FDP and some AfD deputies. In May, it passed the Federal Council. Subsequently, it was subjected to the usual legal examination in the Office of the Federal President.

Greens and SPD satisfied

Green Party politician Till Steffen, who helped draft the reform, expressed his satisfaction after Steinmeier's signing: "I had no doubt that the Federal President's examination would be positive. We have carefully drafted the law. The electoral reform is constitutional. Now it is finally coming into force," he said.

From the SPD came criticism of the Union: "With the reduction of the size of the German Bundestag, we correspond to the clear wish of the citizens in our country," said the deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese. "Today's signature of the Federal President under the reform of the electoral law ends the blockade of the Union with numerous cross-shots by the CSU, which for years had only its own advantage in mind. A fair solution for all could not be achieved in this way. This is now a thing of the past," he added.

With currently 736 members, the Bundestag is the largest freely elected parliament in the world. The new electoral law now caps the number of seats at 630. However, there are no longer any overhang and balancing mandates. For the strength of a party in parliament, only its second vote result is decisive. Until now, overhang mandates have arisen when a party won more seats in the Bundestag via direct mandates than it was entitled to according to the second vote result. She was allowed to keep it. The other parties received compensatory mandates in return. This system led to an ever-increasing bloating of the Bundestag.

CSU and Left see disregard for the will of the voters

The basic mandate clause has also now been dropped. According to her, parties have so far entered the Bundestag in the strength of their second vote result even if they were below the five percent hurdle, but won at least three direct mandates. Every party that wants to enter the Bundestag must get at least five percent of the second votes nationwide in the future. Only parties of national minorities remain exempt.

In the future, each party will only receive as many mandates as it is entitled to according to its second vote result – even if it wins more direct mandates. This means that the constituency winners with the worst first vote result go away empty-handed.

If the CSU had not won 2021.5 percent nationwide in the 2 federal election, but only 4.9 percent like the Left Party, none of its 45 successful direct candidates would have entered the Bundestag under the new electoral law. The left, which benefited from the basic mandate clause, would also be out. Both parties see the reform as a gross disregard for the will of the electorate.

The Left Party had appealed to Steinmeier not to execute the law, but to no avail. The Federal President may refuse to sign it if he is of the opinion that the content of a law is not compatible with the Basic Law. This has happened only eight times in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.

col/flo/sog/dpa