Federal election
Bavaria criticizes the redesign of constituencies
Saxony-Anhalt could lose a constituency to the Free State of Bavaria because of its shrinking population. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Bavaria will get another constituency for the next federal election – this is to be decided in the Bundestag on Thursday. The Free State has concerns. It’s not a matter of if, but of how.
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior criticizes the redesign of federal parliamentary constituencies planned by the Berlin Traffic Light Coalition. The ministry argues that the plans have not been coordinated with Bavaria “in deviation from previous state practice”, they are not sustainable in the medium to long term, and a much more obvious solution would be for an additional constituency in Bavaria.
The Bundestag is scheduled to vote on the draft law from the traffic light factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP this Thursday. He envisages that Saxony-Anhalt will be the next due to its shrinking population Bundestag election loses a constituency to Bavaria. An additional constituency (Memmingen-Unterallgäu) is to be formed there from parts of the previous constituencies of Augsburg-Land, Neu-Ulm and Ostallgäu.
The Bavarian Interior Ministry argued that constituencies should “form a coherent and well-rounded whole, whose citizens represent a regional political unit.” The new constituency and the adjacent Ostallgäu constituency would have “high negative deviation values” in the future. It is foreseeable that these constituencies will have to be redesigned in the next electoral period. The proposed division therefore contradicts the principle of constituency continuity. In addition, the draft law completely ignores the fact that a more obvious solution would be available, namely the formation of an additional constituency in the state capital Munich.
Merz accused Ampel of manipulating voting rights
CDU leader Friedrich Merz argued on Monday that the new layout was intended to ensure that the Augsburg-Stadt constituency “does not have too many CSU voters” and that Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) “retains her constituency in Augsburg City in the next federal election can”. “The right to vote is once again being manipulated.” The traffic light coalition reacted indignantly to the accusation. In fact, Roth has never directly won a constituency in Bavaria.
The deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, called on the CDU leader to show restraint. “Merz, with his irresponsible half-knowledge, is damaging the credibility of our democracy when he falsely speaks of electoral manipulation,” said Wiese. Since June 2023, there have been half a dozen rounds of voting, including with the CDU/CSU, on changes to the constituency layout. Wiese accused the Union of “ultimately blocking any agreement” instead of working on compromises. Now the traffic light is implementing “what the Federal Ministry of the Interior has proposed in coordination with the Federal Returning Authority”. With a view to the preparations for the federal election next year, it is important to create legal certainty now.