Status: 08/12/2021 8:19 p.m.
The FDP, the Left and the Greens have gone to the Constitutional Court to stop the reform of the electoral law. On Friday the court will announce the decision on the urgent application. What is it about and what consequences can this have on the federal election?
On October 8, 2020, the Bundestag passed the new electoral law with the votes of the Union and the SPD. The aim of the reform: to reduce the number of seats in the Bundestag for future legislative periods. The opposition voted against. In their view, the objective of downsizing Parliament will not be achieved. The change in the right to vote is unconstitutional.
For this reason, at the beginning of this year they filed a judicial review complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court will decide on this at a later date. With their urgent motion, the MPs now want to ensure that the changes that have been decided are not already applied in the election in September 2021.
The problem of overhang and compensation mandates
The Bundestag has grown bigger and bigger in the last electoral periods. This was mainly due to the large number of overhang and compensation mandates. Surplus mandates are awarded if a party wins more direct mandates through first votes than it would be entitled to according to the second vote result. The Union in particular had benefited from this in the past. Overhang mandates must be compensated for by compensatory mandates. This has meant that the number of members of the Bundestag has increased even more. From the standard variable 598 to 709 seats.
What does the new electoral reform include?
The Union and the SPD had agreed on the following: From the upcoming election in 2021, up to three overhang mandates should no longer be compensated for by compensatory mandates – provided that the standard size of the Bundestag (of 598 seats) is exceeded. From the 2025 election onwards, there will be an additional reduction in the number of constituencies from 299 to 280. Associated with this would be a reduction in the number of direct mandates.
FDP, Greens and Left have sued
FDP, Greens and the Left keep the reform unconstitutional. It violates the principle of equality, since the Union parties in particular benefit from the overhang mandates that are not balanced. In addition, the changes are worded so vaguely that they violate the principle of standard clarity. Since they could not prevail with their alternative proposal, they submitted an abstract judicial review complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court. Karlsruhe must now check whether the amendment law is unconstitutional.
Decision on urgent application – main proceedings are still ongoing
The main process of abstract norm control is still ongoing. It is unclear when the constitutional judges will decide. The current urgent decision is all about whether the new rules can be applied to the upcoming federal election. If this is not the case, the old law would apply.