- Federal Constitutional Court seems to have partially abolished the new right to vote
Before the announcement of the ruling on the electoral reform of the traffic light coalition, a document was circulating that could be the text of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court. The document was temporarily available on the website of the highest German court and was reported on by several media. A spokesperson for the Federal Constitutional Court declined to comment on the representation that it was the ruling on Monday evening and referred to the announcement of the ruling on Tuesday, which is scheduled for 10 am.
If the document is authentic and actually contains the ruling, the Federal Constitutional Court considers parts of the electoral reform to be unconstitutional. This concerns the abolition of the so-called basic mandate clause in the new electoral law - according to which parties also entered the Bundestag in the strength of their second vote results if they were below the five percent hurdle but won at least three direct mandates. The Left Party benefited from this in the 2021 election.
The electoral reform introduced by the coalition of SPD, FDP, and Greens has been in force since June 2023 and is to be applied for the first time in the upcoming federal election. With the reform, the size of the Bundestag is to be significantly reduced - by more than 100 to a maximum of 630 parliamentarians.
To achieve this, the reform no longer provides for any overhang and equalization mandates - this is also assessed as constitutional in the known document. Overhang mandates arose in the past when a party won more direct mandates via the first votes than it was entitled to seats via the second votes. This party could then keep these mandates, while the other parties received equalization mandates.
The CSU and the Left Party would be particularly affected by the planned abolition of the basic mandate clause. In the 2021 election, the CSU received 5.2 percent of the second votes nationwide. If it were to slip below the five percent mark in the next election, it would be excluded from the Bundestag under the traffic light electoral law - even if it were to win the vast majority of the constituencies in Bavaria directly again.
If the document is confirmed as the court's ruling, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court may require adjustments to the electoral reform implemented by the coalition government, affecting parties like the CSU. The electoral reform was implemented in June 2023, affecting the size of the Bundestag, with the CSU potentially being impacted due to its performance in second votes in the 2021 election.
