GroKo surprisingly agrees on electoral reform - and a Corona package of measures

For years the GroKo has been looking for a means against the giant Bundestag. Surprisingly, they now agree on an electoral reform. And straight to a complete package of corona measures.

• The first meeting of the leaders of the Union and the SPD after the summer break was tough.
• Surprisingly, the GroKo agrees on an electoral reform.
• After mutual accusations, a package of corona measures was also agreed.

Update from August 25, 10:50 p.m.: After long differences and mutual accusations, the leaders of the grand coalition of CDU / CSU and SPD surprisingly agreed on an electoral reform and at the same time on an overall package to extend corona measures . The central point of the package, which was put together on Tuesday in a good eight-hour consultation in the Berlin Chancellery, is the extension of the short-time allowance. In addition, the middle class should get longer help and parents more paid days if their children are ill. According to CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the coalition showed with the package that it is able to act a good year before the next federal election in autumn 2021.

• The ELECTORAL REFORM provides that further growth of the Bundestag should be prevented by a dampening measure as early as the 2021 election. The right reform should not take effect until 2025. To this end, a reform commission is to be set up in this electoral period, said Kramp-Karrenbauer and SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans. The number of constituencies is to be left at 299 for the federal election in 2021 and then reduced to 280 in 2025. With 709 members, the Bundestag has already reached a record level. The standard size is 598 MPs.

The coalition leaders were under great pressure to reach an agreement in view of the next election in the coming year. The coalition must now approach the opposition and try to involve them too. Questions of the right to vote are usually decided by a large majority in the Bundestag.

• Companies in Germany can further secure jobs in the Corona crisis by facilitating SHORT WORK . This should be extended from the regular 12 to up to 24 months. The extended period is to apply to companies that have introduced short-time work by December 31, 2020. At the longest, the short-time allowance should be extended until December 31, 2021. So that the Federal Employment Agency (BA) can shoulder the billions in costs for short-time work, the coalition wants to loosen up tax money - as a grant and not as a loan. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) wants to bring the plans to the federal cabinet this Wednesday.

The social security contributions should be fully reimbursed by June 30, 2021. From July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 at the latest, half of the social security contributions are to be reimbursed for all companies that have introduced short-time working by June 30, 2021. This half reimbursement can be increased to 100 percent - but only if qualification takes place during short-time work.

The short-time work allowance will be increased further to 70 or 77 percent from the fourth month and to 80 or 87 percent from the seventh month. These rules are to be extended to December 31, 2021 for everyone who is entitled to short-time work benefits by March 31, 2021. The regular short-time allowance amounts to 60 percent of the lost net wage, 67 percent for working people with children.

The extension of the short-time allowance is quite controversial. For example, the head of the Munich Ifo Institute, Prof. Clemens Fuest , recently warned  against this. You have to "allow structural change" , so Fuest. *

• This year, legally insured persons will have more sick days to care for their children due to the Corona crisis. Child sickness benefit is to be granted for an additional five days for parents and for single parents for an additional ten days. Parents are generally entitled to ten free working days per year to care for a sick child. For single parents it is up to 20 days. This applies to all children under the age of twelve.
• Even when schools and daycare centers are closed due to Corona, CHILDREN of poorer parents should still be able to receive free LUNCH . The children are to be provided with lunch as part of the education package until December 31, 2020. The decision paper does not reveal how many children last made use of the special regulation. In the spring, critics complained that home deliveries by a locally recognized provider were difficult to implement.
• Those who care for relatives due to corona or have to reorganize CARE can take up to 20 working days off this year. The care support allowance can also be claimed for up to 20 working days.
• The BRIDGING AID for particularly stressed companies should run until the end of the year. The program is currently limited to the end of August. According to the current status, fixed operating costs of up to 150,000 euros will be reimbursed for the months of June to August. The federal government had budgeted 25 billion euros for the subsidies. The disbursement of the funds via the countries is slow, also because the procedure is complex - politicians want to prevent cases of fraud such as with Corona emergency aid. The bridging aid was an important component of the coalition's economic stimulus package agreed in June.
• The relaxations in INSOLVENCY LAW are also being extended to prevent a wave of bankruptcies in the corona crisis. Accordingly, the regulation on the suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency for the reason for filing for overindebtedness will continue to be suspended until the end of the year. The obligation to file for insolvency was suspended from March to the end of September for cases in which the insolvency or overindebtedness of companies is due to the consequences of the corona pandemic.
• A digital EDUCATION OFFENSIVE is to be financed from the EU Corona aid funds , which on the one hand consists of 500 million euros for equipping teachers with digital devices. On the other hand, the establishment of a nationwide education platform is to be promoted, which is supposed to enable a protected and quality-assured space for high-quality digital teaching content.
• Artists, small self-employed people and small business owners should have easier access to basic security. To this end, the coalition wants to make more generous regulations for protective assets. Access to basic social security, which has been made easier due to the Corona crisis, is also to be extended - until December 31, 2021.
• A working group is to explore how bureaucracy can be further reduced. Specifically, it says in a paper that the coalition will set up a high-level working group to identify the content of the regulations for a “Bureaucracy Relief Act IV”. The aim of the law should be to strengthen the economy, to relieve bureaucracy and to maintain the high standards in force.

Next suffrage farce? GroKo covered himself with allegations - Söder surprised with a statement

(First report from August 25, 2020) Berlin / Munich - It is an open-heart operation of democracy and a never-ending story - which could now culminate in the next flop: Shortly before the talks in the coalition committee about the electoral reform for Germans called for by all sides Bundestag, the Union and the SPD are openly at odds.

SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans accused the coalition partner on Tuesday in the SWR of wanting to secure advantages with his reform proposal. His CSU counterpart Markus Söder, on the other hand, accused the Social Democrats in the Spiegel of playing for tactical reasons - and was astonishingly relaxed about a possible failure.

Suffrage: GroKo dispute continues - decisive meeting on Tuesday

The leaders of the grand coalition will meet on Tuesday afternoon (August 25). The topic is the corona development, but also the heated dispute over electoral law reform. The reform is intended to prevent further enlargement of the Bundestag .

The concept of the Union parliamentary group envisages, among other things, reducing the number of constituencies from 299 to 280. In addition, up to seven overhang seats should not be compensated for with additional parliamentary seats for the other parliamentary groups. The Union itself would probably benefit from this. The SPD proposal , on the other hand, plans to cap the mandates at 690.

Bundestag: Walter-Borjans raises violent allegations against Union - "attempt to gain an advantage"

Walter-Borjans does not want to accept that. It should not be "that a party makes proposals that are such that the CDU and CSU in the end have more seats in parliament than they won votes in the election," he said in the SWR . In the coalition committee , therefore, an agreement must be found, "the this attempt to gain an advantage thwarted".

At the same time, he suspected tactical calculation behind the union proposal. For a long time, the CDU and CSU were not ready to reduce the number of constituencies. "Now one proposes that and hopes that the SPD rejects it, because there are already a number of CDU and CSU candidates who have been named," said the SPD chief. In the event of a redesign of constituencies, the list of candidates would have to be repeated, he warned. The CDU sees no problem in the new cuts, as party vice Thorsten Frei explained in an interview with Münchner Merkur *.

Walter-Borjans defended his party's proposal to initially only cap the number of parliamentary seats for the upcoming federal election in autumn 2021. Such a bridging solution is possible. "But then everyone has to move." The SPD also insists on an equal occupation of the electoral lists with men and women , which the Union has so far rejected.

CSU boss Söder targets the SPD: "Tactically motivated proposal"?

CSU boss Söder, for his part, raised allegations against the SPD . "The Union extends its hand to the Social Democrats for a solution that will apply to the next Bundestag," he told Spiegel. “But I have the feeling that some SPD strategists think that a larger parliament could be more promising for a red-red-green alliance.” The coalition partner's “delay” therefore seems “tactically motivated”.

Regarding the accusation that his party dragged the matter off and submitted a joint proposal with the CDU only very late, Söder said: “But now it is on the table in good time.” . Minute falls ".

Suffrage flop? Söder takes it easy: "100 more elected MPs are not a disaster if ..."

If no agreement is reached, Söder does not consider this to be too dramatic: "100 more elected MPs are not a disaster for democracy if they help to bring politics closer to the citizens - for example to expose any conspiracy theories, including Corona", he said to the mirror .

It was still an open question whether the leaders of the Union and the SPD would find a compromise in the consultations that began around 3 p.m. The reform of the electoral law is intended to prevent the Bundestag from becoming larger again in the autumn 2021 election. With 709 MPs , it has already reached a record level. The standard size is 598 MPs. Without reform, it is feared that it will grow to possibly more than 800 MPs. Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble has already failed with several attempts at arbitration.

It is not enough for the #voting law that the GroKo agrees on something today in the #Coalition Committee. For decades it was good custom and, in the interpretation of the Federal Constitutional Court, also desired by the Basic Law, the right to vote with the broadest possible

Pressure came from the opposition even before the appointment. The parliamentary manager of the FDP, Marco Buschmann , declared in a tweet that it is not enough if the GroKo "agrees on something" in the coalition committee. It is good custom to pass voting rights with broad majorities. If there is no agreement, attempts will be made, together with the Greens and the Left, to bring a counter-proposal to the Bundestag for the third reading in September. ( AFP / dpa / fn ) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network .