According to a report, the traffic light plans for a smaller Bundestag are taking shape. As early as next week there should be the green light for a reform that will no longer provide for overhang mandates in the future. The Union sees this as unconstitutional.
According to a newspaper report, the traffic light coalition wants to introduce an electoral law reform and thus a reduction in the size of the Bundestag in the coming days. The electoral law commission of the Bundestag should give the green light for the reform plan on Thursday, reports the “Bild”, citing faction groups.
The parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, told the newspaper: “I expect approval from the traffic light groups.” The draft stipulates that after the next federal election in 2025, the parliament will have no more than the 598 seats provided for by law. As a result of the so-called overhang and compensation mandates, there are currently 736 MPs.
The cornerstones of the reform plan had already become known in May. According to this, although personalized proportional representation with first and second votes should remain, only the second vote should decide on the size of the Bundestag. This would eliminate the overhang and compensatory mandates, but not all winners in the constituencies would move into parliament. So far, overhang mandates have arisen when a party wins more direct mandates in a country than it is entitled to based on the result of the second vote. The other parties then receive balancing mandates in order to restore proportional representation from the second votes.
The traffic light plan now provides that a party in a federal state is only allocated as many constituency mandates as it is entitled to based on the result of the second vote. If she got more direct mandates, she doesn’t get those in which she has the weakest election results compared to the other constituencies. The CSU, which could lose more than a quarter of its direct mandates, would be particularly affected by the reform plans of the Ampel coalition partners.
CSU regional group chief Alexander Dobrindt announced in the “Bild”: “If the traffic light groups decide to do such a maneuver, we will immediately file a constitutional complaint against it.” The first parliamentary director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, also called the traffic light plans “simply unconstitutional”.
