Federal election
Constituency moves from Saxony-Anhalt to Bavaria
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 – the Bundestag decided this today. The Free State has concerns. It’s not a matter of if, but of how.
Because of the shrinking population in Saxony-Anhalt, the state loses the next one Bundestag election a constituency to Bavaria. The Bundestag decided today to make a corresponding change to the electoral law. As a result, the Anhalt constituency, which includes Bitterfeld-Wolfen and Köthen, among others, disappears.
The affected voters will be distributed among neighboring constituencies. In Bavaria, the new Memmingen constituency is being created from parts of the previous constituencies of Augsburg-Land, Neu-Ulm and Ostallgäu.
Because Bavaria’s additional constituency is being created in the Swabian part of the country instead of in downtown Munich, the traffic light coalition and the Union faction accused each other in the debate of wanting to manipulate the right to vote out of self-interest. The domestic policy spokesman for the CSU regional group, Alexander Hoffmann, criticized that the arbitrary separation of the CSU-heavy Königsbrunn municipality from the Augsburg-Stadt constituency increases the chances of the Green politician Claudia Roth of winning a direct mandate there.
Her party colleague Till Steffen rejected this claim. Roth has never been directly elected in her Augsburg constituency anyway – so nothing will change for her. Rather, the new constituency is being set up in Swabia because two constituencies in this region are so large that they need to be reformed anyway.
Bavaria criticizes the redesign of constituencies
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 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 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.