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Ballot papers for the 2017 federal election: so that small parties can also get it, they have to collect signatures
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
Do you know the »Magdeburg Garden Party«?
Or the “Party for Change, Vegetarians and Vegans”, or “V Party” for short?
There are two of a total of 42 parties that took part in the 2017 federal election.
In addition to the large, established forces, numerous small groups want to compete again this year - but that is not so easy at these times.
Because parties that are currently neither represented in the Bundestag nor in state parliaments with at least five MPs must present the electoral authorities with a certain number of supporting signatures in order to be allowed to vote.
This is what the federal and state electoral laws prescribe.
The signatures are intended to ensure that there are only "serious proposals" for election that find a "significant number of supporters in the electorate," said the Federal Returning Officer.
But how should small parties with often only a few hundred members collect the necessary signatures in the pandemic?
There are massive contact restrictions, political meetings usually only take place virtually, conversations with supporters and citizens often only via social media or video conferences.
Information stands on marketplaces and in pedestrian zones are currently usually not allowed or appropriate due to the risk of infection, the same applies to home visits.
Several small parties are therefore pushing for the electoral hurdles to be lowered.
They want to achieve that they have to submit significantly fewer signatures than previously required by law in order to be able to run in the election on September 26th.
In the federal states, barriers have already been lowered
The request has been known in the Bundestag for weeks - but only now is the matter moving.
The parliamentary directors of all political groups recently dealt with the issue.
The coalition is now giving signals that it is ready to make it easier for small parties to vote this year.
In the Union parliamentary group, for example, reference is made to the latest ruling by the Berlin Constitutional Court, according to which the required number of signatures must be reduced for the elections to the House of Representatives taking place at the same time as the Bundestag election.
The House of Representatives decided to halve the minimum requirements in February.
But that's not enough for the judges, the quorums have to be reduced to 20 to 30 percent compared to the pre-crisis period.
"In the light of" the Berlin decision, "I think it makes sense to lower the signature requirements in the electoral law for the Bundestag election," said the legal advisor of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Ansgar Heveling, to SPIEGEL.
A “final decision” between the Union and the SPD remains to be seen, however, according to the CDU politician.
Time is running out.
The election proposals including supporting signatures must be submitted to the district returning officers (for the direct candidates) or the state returning officers (for the state lists) by 19 July at the latest.
The Bundestag would have to decide on an amendment to the electoral law at the latest in its last session before the parliamentary summer break at the end of June.
The Greens are therefore pushing the pace.
"Freedom of choice must also be guaranteed at the time of the corona pandemic," said Greens parliamentary group manager Britta Haßelmann to SPIEGEL.
It is a question of »fairness that parties that have not yet been represented in parliaments can run in the Bundestag election.« Your group is therefore urging that this problem be tackled »at short notice and jointly« with the other groups.
Haßelmann had already written to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in February, requesting that the approval hurdles be lowered "significantly" for the current pandemic.
The Parliamentary State Secretary Günter Krings played the ball back: "According to state practice," the "shaping of the electoral regulations" is a matter for the Bundestag, "the federal government does not usually bring its own initiatives," replied the CDU politician.
"Freedom of choice must also be guaranteed during the corona pandemic."
Green politician Britta Haßelmann
However, Krings pointed out that Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had already raised the question in November of last year in a letter to Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble whether it was necessary to lower the quorum of signatures in the federal electoral law if the extent of the extent of the pandemic-related impairments was to be continuously monitored.
At the beginning of March, Schäuble had finally written to all group leaders.
The CDU politician referred to a letter from the "Liberal Conservative Reformers" (LKR) to him and the parliamentary groups, in which they had addressed the problems of small parties in Coronza times.
He did not consider the matter "constitutionally irrelevant from the point of view of equal opportunities," wrote Schäuble.
Specifically, he proposed "to solve the problem by reducing the number of signatures or by facilitating digital possibilities for signature performance."
How big the challenge would be without a change in the law, LKR federal chief Jürgen Joost calculated for SPIEGEL: His party needs a total of around 59,800 certified signatures for direct candidates and 27,495 for the 16 state lists for 299 constituencies in the federal government.
"Without a buffer of ten to 15 percent more signatures, this would be exactly 87,295 signatures, with a buffer around 100,000 signatures," says Joost.
That cannot be achieved in times of pandemic.
The party - it is currently represented in the Bundestag through the accession of two former AfD MPs - is calling for the obligation to collect signatures for the Bundestag election to be lifted or "significantly reduced".
In Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the relevant state election laws had already been changed in this sense before the state elections in mid-March - but not without pressure from those concerned.
In the southwest, the state parliament only reacted after a complaint by several small parties and a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
A so-called organ charge of the "Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany" (MLPD) is pending before the Federal Constitutional Court.
With the procedure, explained their lawyer Peter Klusmann to SPIEGEL, the aim was to get the Bundestag to act and lift the mandatory support signatures for this year, "but at least significantly reduce the required number."
It would be in the interests of the parliamentary groups not to create the impression that they must first be forced to act by the Karlsruhe judges.
From the FDP parliamentary group, it is said that there should be further talks about a possible change to the electoral law after Easter.