Friedrich Merz: Traffic light parties react angrily to allegations of electoral manipulation

Enlarge image

Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz: “Once again, serious damage has been done to our country’s democracy”

Photo: Bernd Elmenthaler / IMAGO

Because of a planned change to the federal electoral law, Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) has accused the traffic light coalition of wanting to manipulate voting rights. Politicians from the SPD and FDP don't want to let that happen - and they accuse Merz of demagoguery and AfD language. The dispute is about the fact that, according to the traffic light plans, Saxony-Anhalt is to lose a constituency as the proportion of the population declines - in favor of an additional constituency in Bavaria.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach from the SPD wrote to Merz on Platform X: “This is an outrageous accusation: manipulation of the right to vote. This is what the AfD would argue. We, the traffic lights, have only abolished the unfair overhang mandates that help the Union.

The FDP's top European election candidate, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, wrote on X: "You can be dissatisfied with the traffic lights. But Friedrich Merz is not an alternative, but a dangerous demagogue who makes irresponsible comparisons and ignores the Federal Constitutional Court. This man must not be held responsible. Out of the question.”

New constituency in Bavaria

The Bundestag is scheduled to vote on the draft law from the traffic light factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP on Thursday. Among other things, it provides for the redistribution of a constituency from Saxony-Anhalt to Bavaria, as the previous distribution of constituencies among the states no longer corresponds to their share of the population. In Bavaria, an additional constituency is to be formed from parts of the previous constituencies of Augsburg-Land, Neu-Ulm and Ostallgäu.

Merz argued on Monday that this was intended to ensure that the Augsburg-City constituency "doesn't have too many CSU voters" and that Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) "can keep her constituency in Augsburg City in the next federal election." However, Roth was also number one on the Green Party state list in Bavaria in the last federal election - a safe place for entry into the Bundestag.

Merz had said that the change had not been agreed with the affected federal state. The change would “once again manipulate the right to vote and once again cause serious damage to our country’s democracy.”

col/dpa