Bavarian government wants to sue against electoral law reform

Status: 05/16/2023 5:15 p.m

The dispute over the reform to reduce the size of the Bundestag continues: Bavaria wants to sue against the new electoral law. State Interior Minister Herrmann warned that the reform could lead to orphaned constituencies.

After the CSU, the state government also wants to sue against the electoral law reform passed in the Bundestag. The Free State will file a lawsuit with the Federal Constitutional Court. The Bavarian cabinet has now decided that.

Last Friday he had Federal Council the reform pushed by the SPD, Greens and FDP let happen. A request from Bavaria to call the mediation committee did not find a majority there. For State Chancellery Minister Florian Herrmann “a black day in the constitutional history of the Federal Republic”: “The traffic light majority is tinkering with an electoral law that only supports them or the parties supporting them.” The government creates its own majorities through voting rights. The contradict the constitution.

Joachim Herrmann warns of orphaned constituencies

Bavaria’s main criticism of the electoral law reform: If the nationwide second vote result is less than five percent, a party should no longer enter the Bundestag – not even if it wins at least three direct mandates. Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann therefore warns that the reform could lead to a large number of orphaned constituencies.

“It can happen that a country is underrepresented,” says Herrmann. Namely for the under-representation of Bavaria in the Bundestag. After all, it could be that the CSU will get many direct mandates in Bavaria in the future, but will remain below five percent nationwide. After the new electoral law, she would not be allowed to enter the Bundestag despite the direct mandates.

CSU and left particularly affected

However, this could not only come to Bavaria, but also to other federal states. And: In addition to the CSU, the left would be particularly affected by the electoral reform. The left is currently benefiting from the basic mandate clause. The party won three direct mandates and 4.9 percent of the valid second votes in the 2021 federal election.

After the cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Herrmann argued that the newly created rules violated the principle of equal suffrage as well as the principles of democracy and the federal state. He hopes that the Federal Constitutional Court will decide on the lawsuit from Bavaria before the next federal election in 2025.

Markus Söder confirmed: CSU is planning constitutional complaint

The CSU also wants to file a constitutional complaint. Party leader Markus Söder made that clear again at yesterday’s CSU board meeting. The parliamentary group of the CDU/CSU also intends to file a lawsuit in the near future.

The traffic light government, on the other hand, considers the electoral law reform to be urgently needed. Because this is intended to reduce the size of the ever-growing Bundestag. The number of MPs will then be limited to 630. There are currently 736 MPs in the Bundestag.

Martin Hagen: “CSU just want campaign bluster make”

The situation is not easy for the Greens, SPD and FDP in Bavaria. The controversial electoral law reform offers the CSU a through ball for the election campaign. The chairman of the FDP in Bavaria, Martin Hagen, still had at the FDP party conference in Ingolstadt in mid-March made it clear that he wanted the issue to be cleared up quickly and that his party friends in the federal government were being urged to adapt the reform. However, that didn’t happen.

Instead, the CSU should enter into a list with the CDU, Hagen now advises. The federal government offered her that, Hagen said. “That was brusquely rejected by the CSU.” The CSU is obviously about making a lot of noise again in the election campaign. Normally, the CSU is self-confident, now they worry about the five percent hurdle. That doesn’t go together for Hagen.

That is the European perspective at BR24.

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Source: BR24 05/16/2023 – 2:47 p.m

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