Inflated Bundestag: Parliament in the multi-purpose hall?

The German electoral law is a permanent construction site. Since the beginning of the legislative period, the parliamentary groups have been struggling to reform the Parliament to prevent it from getting bigger. Bundestag Vice President Thomas Oppermann now warns of the consequences of an inflated Bundestag.

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"If we do not reform the right to vote, our Bundestag could swell to 800 or more members," Oppermann told SPIEGEL. "Such a large parliament would - in continuous operation - no longer fit in the plenary hall of the Reichstag building, then we would have to look for an alternative option for Bundestag meetings."

At the Federal Assembly, which is convened every five years to elect the Federal President, around 1300 delegates sit "chair to chair" in the Reichstag. "But this is not a parliamentary activity," says Oppermann, "but an event that only lasts a few hours."

The Bundestag currently has 709 members, a good 100 more than the legal size, which is partly due to the expansion of the party landscape and the regulations for overhang mandates and their compensation. Because the Bundestag is already "bursting at the seams", Oppermann imagines the consequences of a move that may be necessary: ​​"What impression should a parliament meeting in a multi-purpose hall convey to citizens?"

The President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU), had also recently warned that MPs and employees may have to switch to residential containers. "The greatest damage would be the loss of trust," says Oppermann. "A parliament that does not manage to limit its own growth loses respect for citizens."

The social democrat sees the functionality of the democratic decision-making processes in danger: "I can only urgently appeal to all parliamentary groups in the Bundestag to bring about a reform of the electoral law with united forces."

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