In the general election, all adults are allowed to make their crosses.
Or?
No - because almost 30 percent of them are excluded from voting in Nuremberg.
Nuremberg - There are important decisions to be made on Sunday: a new Bundestag will be elected in Germany.
All citizens over the age of 18 are allowed to cast their two votes * - one for the direct candidate and one for the party.
But this does not affect all residents of the Federal Republic.
In Nuremberg *, for example, 30 percent of adults are not allowed to vote.
Bundestag election in Nuremberg: 30 percent of adults are not allowed to vote
With around 540,000 inhabitants (as of 2019), Nuremberg is the second largest city in Bavaria.
On Sunday, September 26th, only a fraction of them will go to the ballot box in the federal election *.
On the one hand, this is due to the fact that, of course, some of the residents are minors.
Young people were recently allowed to vote in the U18 election.
But even among the over-18s, a large number of Nuremberg residents are not allowed to vote: 29.2, as the polling officer explains.
Bundestag election: at least 18 years of age and German - otherwise you are not allowed to vote
The Basic Law * in Germany defines who is allowed to vote in federal elections.
It contains the well-known sentence that is the basis of a democracy: “All state power comes from the people.” The Basic Law, however, restricts: only those who have reached the age of 18 are allowed to vote.
Since 1990 there has been a further restriction set by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1990.
Only "Germans in the sense of the Basic Law" are allowed to participate in federal elections.
Nuremberg has a high proportion of foreigners - not all of them are allowed to vote in the federal elections
In Nuremberg that is only around 70 percent of adults, as
reported by
infranken.de
.
The proportion of foreigners in the Franconian metropolis is around 24 percent.
Even higher for adults: 29.2 percent of the residents in Nuremberg do not have German citizenship.
You are not allowed to participate in the upcoming federal election.
All information about the Bundestag election in Nuremberg can be found in our overview article *.
There are protests against the regulation that excludes non-German residents from the federal election.
The “Not without us 14 percent” initiative calls for at least some of the currently excluded foreigners to be included.
“Enough!” Writes the initiative in a call.
“It cannot be that we, almost ten million residents, are excluded from the most important political instrument of every state.” The regulation affects people who “live, love and pay taxes” and have “been in Engage Germany ".
Bundestag election: Initiative calls for new voting rights - foreigners should be taken into account
The initiative calls for the right to vote for all people who have had their main residence in Germany for five years - even if they do not have a German passport.
The initiative would like to give its demand even more weight with a petition to the federal government.
They not only want to be involved in federal elections, but also in local elections * - that is, elections in the city, municipality or district - and also want to be able to cast their vote.
(By the way: Our Nuremberg newsletter informs you about all developments and results from the Franconian metropolis around the upcoming federal election - and of course about all other important stories from Nuremberg.)
Voting in Germany: Greens for change - CSU against
The petition is of course too late for the upcoming federal election - and whether something changes in the regulation in the future is up to politicians.
The opinions in the parties are very different: The Greens, for example, write in their election manifesto * literally: “Anyone who has the center of their life here must have the opportunity to participate equally in elections, votes and all other democratic processes.” The Greens want one The first step is to introduce municipal voting rights for so-called third-country nationals.
Bundestag election: CSU wants to allow voting rights at the “end of integration”
But there are also opponents of this approach.
The CSU *, for example, has strongly opposed the weakening of the electoral law in the past.
"For us as the CSU parliamentary group, the right to vote is not at the beginning, but at the end of a lived integration," the party said in October 2020 in the Bavarian State Newspaper.
Bundestag election: votes from non-Germans could change the result
As the
Neue Züricher Zeitung
(NZZ)
breaks down, the inclusion of non-Germans could significantly change the election results - especially in municipalities with such a high percentage as Nuremberg.
Around 13 percent of the non-German residents have a Turkish passport.
And as the
NZZ
reports, Muslims tend to favor the SPD * particularly often - the Greens are less popular with the majority of Muslims.
The union parties CDU and CSU were able to win the favor of the Turkish guest workers, according to the
NZZ
gain.
Precisely because close results are expected in the Nuremberg constituencies, the votes of the many non-Germans could tip the scales.
However, not in the upcoming general election - the electoral law cannot be changed that quickly.
Elections to the Bundestag: There is already a change in the electoral law
There is one change this year compared to the previous elections.
For the first time, a section of the population has full access to the federal election: people with disabilities and legal support are allowed to make their mark this year.
They have long been excluded from the right to vote at the federal level.
(dst)
* Merkur.de
is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA