Showdown on electoral reform: now the GroKo bosses should decide

2020-08-15T18:37:00.147Z

The Bundestag is too big and threatens to grow further. That is why the parties have been arguing about voting rights for years. Nobody wants to give in - for fear of power shifts.

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Chancellor Merkel, Vice Chancellor Scholz

Photo: Pool / Getty Images

Ralph Brinkhaus is from East Westphalia and a trained tax advisor, but when it comes down to it, he gambles too. This is how he went from being an outsider to being head of the Union parliamentary group, and so he forced his MPs on course before the summer break on voting rights. But there was no agreement with the coalition partner SPD, and so the CDU politician is betting on a showdown.

"The topic is serious and very important to us," says Brinkhaus. "And since there was no other way, it has to be resolved in the coalition committee."

On August 25, the coalition leaders are supposed to solve a problem that the government partners have been putting off for years. It is the next, perhaps last, escalation stage in the dispute over a new right to vote. What is sought is a reform that prevents the Bundestag from growing further and that does not change the character of the right to vote too much.

The Bundestag will be re-elected in just over a year. The parliament currently has 709 members. After that it could be 800 or more. Only 598 are planned.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-08-15