BERLIN — The Bundestag may be shrunk from 733 to 630 seats, Germany’s top court ruled Tuesday.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe added that a regulation to protect smaller parties must remain in place in ruling on the German government’s planned electoral reform.
If a party receives less than 5 percent of the vote (the threshold to allow parties to enter the German parliament) yet wins three or more constituencies, it should remain entitled to proportional representation in the Bundestag, the court said.
In the 2021 national election, for example, The Left won only 4.9 percent of the vote, yet three direct mandates — and was thus allowed to enter parliament with 39 members.
The judgment upheld the efforts of two opposition-party plaintiffs — the Bavarian Christian Social Union and The Left — which feared the new rules could eventually spell the end of their factions.
“This is a major defeat for the coalition as far as tightening of the 5 percent clause is concerned,” Günter Krings, a parliamentarian from the Christian Democratic Union, said in a reaction on the radio.
The ruling means 103 fewer seats will be up for grabs in next year’s election.
“The reduction in the size of the Bundestag is a great success. We have achieved this against fierce resistance,” Till Steffen from the Greens told POLITICO, adding: “We have clarity just in time for the next Bundestag elections.”
Germany’s ruling parties — the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, and the pro-business Free Democratic Party — believe that the new rules will save at least €310 million in taxpayers’ money per legislative period and increase efficiency.
The German parliament grew to a record size of 736 lawmakers after the 2021 election. That’s even bigger than the European Parliament, where 720 members from 27 countries represent the entire European Union. The world’s largest legislative body is the Chinese National People’s Congress, with 2,980 delegates.
“This number of parliamentarians creates functional obstacles both for attendance in the plenary and for work in the committees, which cannot be easily overcome in terms of space or personnel,” the ruling parties argued in their draft law passed last year.
The continuous growth of the lower house of parliament is due to the country’s unique voting system.
Under Germany’s system of proportional representation, voters cast two ballots for the lower legislative house: the first to elect a candidate in their constituency and the second for their party of choice.
If a party won more candidates via the first vote than eligible via the second vote, it had a right to so-called “overhang seats.” That, in turn, made the other parties eligible for so-called “leveling seats.”
This system, through which more than 100 parliamentarians entered the Bundestag after the 2021 election, is to be abolished from next year’s Bundestag election.
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