Danes party wants in Bundestag: SSWer?

The core electorate is small, but the chances are good. For the first time in 60 years, the party of the Danish and Frisian minorities could move into the Bundestag. But what does the SSW actually want there?

In the far north of Germany there is something like a Gallic village that was able to cheer for the European Football Championship for much longer than it did until the round of 16: It is in the north of Schleswig-Holstein and is called Südschleswig. The German Danes – members of a national and thus protected minority in Germany – live there in three districts and one city.

Like Stefan Seidler: “There are two hearts beating in my chest, the German and the Danish,” he says. His party, the South Schleswig Voters’ Association SSW, made him the top candidate for the federal elections – the first since the 1960s.

Special rights for minorities

Seidler’s mother comes from Denmark, his father is “Flensburger Jung” like himself. He speaks fluent Danish. “That is why it was quite normal for me to attend the Danish school in the Schleswig region,” says Seidler. He met his wife while studying in Denmark, his family is part of the Danish minority – like an estimated another 50,000 people in southern Schleswig.

Estimated because there is no test of membership: every Schleswig-Holsteiner is free to profess to be part of the Danish minority – since the referendum in 1920, when the citizens of the then Duchy of Schleswig could vote which country they want to belong to. Those in northern Schleswig became Danes, those in southern Schleswig became Germans. Minorities arose on both sides.

Top candidate Seidler and his party have taken a huge step forward, measured by the size of the minority – which includes the Danes as well as the approximately 10,000 national Frisians – and the number of members of less than 4,000: from Flensburg about 400 kilometers to the southeast, to Berlin. There the SSW wants to get a seat in the federal parliament. And the chances of achieving that are astonishingly good – although the party can only collect votes in Schleswig-Holstein.

Around 50,000 votes could be enough

As a minority party, the SSW is exempt from the five percent clause according to the federal electoral law. The party would only have to win so many votes that it is entitled to a mandate according to the calculation process. So September 26th will be a long election night for SSW.

Political scientist Wilhelm Knelangen from the University of Kiel says whether the SSW comes into play depends not only on the number of votes but also on the turnout. “The lower the turnout, the greater the chances for the SSW.” In addition, possible overhang mandates play a role, should the next Bundestag be very large, as expected: If the vote is equalized, the SSW increases the probability of getting a seat.

“This is not a utopia”

Exactly how many votes the SSW needs can only be estimated based on the voter turnout in recent years and the vote potential of the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein. “We are assuming 40,000 to 50,000 votes,” says party chairman Flemming Meyer. “It’s not a utopia, but we don’t get the votes by ourselves.” In the state elections in 2017, the SSW in Schleswig-Holstein received 49,000 votes.

Since the SSW can be elected throughout Schleswig-Holstein in the early 1990s and no longer only in the Schleswig region, it is usually represented by several members in the state parliament in Kiel. In 2012, the SSW was even involved in the government, in the so-called coastal coalition with the SPD and the Greens.

According to political scientist Knelangen, this has contributed to the fact that the SSW is no longer perceived as a pure minority party. What is important for the Bundestag mission.

“We felt like supplicants”

Because the SSW is taking a two-pronged approach: on the one hand as a representative of the Danish and Frisian minorities – but also of the other minorities in Germany – such as Sorbs and Sinti and Roma: “We have always worked well with the other parties and members of parliament, but we always felt like supplicants, “says top candidate Seidler.

On the other hand, the SSW, as a regional party, wants to bring Schleswig-Holstein issues into the Bundestag. The party perceives the state as being left behind in terms of federal politics. Examples are infrastructure, subsidies for hospital beds and income: “If we look at the average income in the western federal states, Schleswig-Holstein comes in last,” says top candidate Seidler. With its topics in the Bundestag, the SSW also wants to offer Scandinavian solutions that are often pragmatic and successful, such as with the topic of digitization, according to Seidler. “The good thing about us is that we don’t have a party headquarters in Berlin that gives us a federal political direction.”

Almost half against Mission Bundestag

For the Bundestag champion and party chairman Meyer, the time is ripe: “We have noticed that especially the younger generation is interested in running for office. And that we also have a chance.” That was not always the case: from 1949 to 1953, the SSW already had a member of the Bundestag, Hermann Claussen. After that, it was no longer possible to get enough votes. “Then at the beginning of the 1960s you decided that you no longer wanted to run,” says Meyer. “But with the addition: As long as we don’t have a chance.”

At the end of the 1990s, the party determined that it could be enough. Flemming Meyer’s father Karl Otto had already campaigned for the party’s candidacy – but repeatedly failed because of party congress resolutions.

At a party congress in September 2020, supporters around party leader Flemming Meyer started the project again: around 60 percent voted for the candidacy. There were still doubts. The concern: The way to the Bundestag could split the party, the SSW could overstretch. “On the contrary,” says Meyer: “That really brought about the momentum.”

SSW candidate competes against Habeck

Top candidate Seidler believes it is very likely that the SSW will receive enough second votes for a mandate. For political scientist Knelangen, however, it cannot be ruled out that the SSW could get a direct mandate, especially in the Flensburg constituency, where the SSW is strong in local elections: “That can be tight. The SSW could annoy larger parties in individual constituencies. ” Seidler is competing in Flensburg against a nationwide well-known candidate: Robert Habeck from the Greens.

What is a member of parliament in Berlin supposed to do?

A member of the Bundestag alone does not have parliamentary group status. “That brings disadvantages in terms of speaking times and representation in committees,” says political scientist Knelangen. The SSW cannot avoid the question of what an individual MP should achieve.

“What difference does one more mandate with the major parliamentary groups, the Greens or the CDU make for Schleswig-Holstein?” Asks Seidler. “From our point of view, a MP from the SSW makes a much bigger difference for our north than if the big ones got one more.”