The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Parity law: Electoral Law Commission discusses parity

2022-05-13T09:13:12.811Z


A commission is to draw up proposals for changing the electoral law. For the first time, members of parliament and experts have now spoken about the topic of parity - a dispute is announced at the traffic light.


Enlarge image

Demonstrators at the announcement of the verdict against the Brandenburg Parity Law

Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa

Women are still underrepresented in the Bundestag – the Bundestag Commission on the reform of electoral law and the modernization of parliamentary work has now addressed this issue for the first time.

Above all, it was about the question of what reasons speak for and against a legal regulation that is intended to bring more women into the German Parliament.

Elke Ferner, former SPD member of the Bundestag and expert on the commission, pointed out the reasons why the proportion of women in the Bundestag was never higher than 36.3 percent.

As a woman, one must have the time to engage in party politics.

Many women miss this time.

The chances of winning direct mandates in elections are also lower than for men.

Many women would only stand in hopeless constituencies.

"The opponents of parity are hiding behind constitutional concerns," said Ferner about the meeting.

The Federal Constitutional Court has made it clear that the legislature has a great deal of leeway when it comes to changing the electoral law if there is appropriate justification.

Karlsruhe had rejected the acceptance of the constitutional complaint against the judgment against the parity law in Thuringia with a detailed reasoning.

FDP considers parity regulation to be "highly problematic"

In the hearing of the commission, the SPD, members of the Greens and the Left also spoke out in favor of a parity regulation.

Union, FDP and AfD see things differently.

FDP chairman Konstantin Kuhle considers a statutory parity regulation to be unconstitutional and "highly problematic" for parliamentary culture.

The Union MP Nina Warken pointed out the observation that the proportion of women in the parliamentary groups generally corresponds to the proportion of women in the respective parties.

The parties should work towards significant changes themselves.

It also points out that the electoral law can be passed with a simple majority in the Bundestag - and that the promotion of equality is part of the coalition agreement.

“If the FDP doesn't want to change the electoral law, they have to say how else they want to get more women into parliament.

Or just admit that you don't want equality," says Ferner.

The Commission is made up of 13 MEPs and 13 experts.

It was installed by the Bundestag on March 16, 2022 and is intended to develop proposals for reforming the electoral law - in particular to downsize the Bundestag.

Parliament had grown to almost 800 MPs due to compensation and overhang mandates.

598 are actually planned. An interim report from the commission is expected at the end of August.

Mfh

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-13

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-13T05:13:47.249Z
News/Politics 2024-02-09T10:04:40.762Z
News/Politics 2024-03-08T05:08:34.913Z
News/Politics 2024-03-06T05:18:15.805Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.