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Bundestag (May 2020): Years of discussion about electoral reform
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
The Bundestag is said to have 598 members - in fact there are more than 700. There is consensus among the parties that the parliament should be smaller.
On the other hand, there is a lot of discussion about how this goal can be achieved.
The Union and the SPD have tried to reform their electoral law.
But this is now becoming a case for the Federal Constitutional Court.
The FDP, the Greens and the Left want to use a so-called abstract control of norms at the highest German court against the reform.
This enables rules of federal or state law to be checked for their compatibility with the Basic Law.
The federal government, a state government or a quarter of the members of the Bundestag can submit an application.
"Change in the right to vote is constitutionally untenable"
The new electoral law has serious shortcomings and violates the constitution, said Marco Buschmann, first parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group.
The opposition is moving to Karlsruhe "in order to bring down this electoral reform of the grand coalition, which does not achieve its goal, is badly done and, in our opinion, violates the constitution."
Buschmann criticized, among other things, the fact that the law had deliberately distorted the mechanism for distributing mandates in favor of the Union.
In addition, it is worded so poorly and inexplicably that even experts do not know "what the wording of the law really means".
"After careful examination, we are united by a conviction that the change to the electoral law is constitutionally untenable," said the left-wing political spokesman, Friedrich Straetmanns.
The first parliamentary manager of the Greens, Britta Haßelmann, spoke of a terrible law that does not serve its purpose.
The FDP, the Left and the Greens had already worked closely together during the years of discussion about electoral law reform.
So they presented a joint draft law, but it failed because of the majority of the CDU / CSU and SPD.
Parliament passed the current reform in early October.
It is also controversial in the ranks of the government factions, which was shown, among other things, by the fact that Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) abstained from voting.
The reform stipulates that the number of 299 constituencies will remain in the Bundestag election next year.
Overhang mandates from a party are to be partially offset against their list mandates.
If the Bundestag's regular size of 598 seats is exceeded, up to three overhang seats should not be compensated for by compensatory seats.
The aim is to downsize the Bundestag, which has grown to 709 members.
However, many experts doubt that this will succeed with the reform.
A report by the Scientific Service of the Bundestag also confirms that the reform has little effect in this regard.
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asa / dpa
