If the CSU and the Left pull together in the Bundestag, then it must be a very special issue. Voting rights are about political existence for both parties. Both benefited from the old regulation: The CSU won many direct mandates and overhang mandates because it received more seats from the first vote than it received from the second vote.
The Left entered the Bundestag in 2021 having won three constituencies, although their second vote result was less than five percent.
But the traffic light government changed the voting law so that in the most recent federal election, not everyone who won a constituency got into parliament. CSU regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann and left-wing parliamentary group leader Sören Pellmann agree in their opposition to this: The right to vote must ensure that everyone who wins mandates is also represented in the Bundestag. The CSU and the Left Party have filed a lawsuit against the traffic light changes before the Federal Constitutional Court.
This has raised objections to the removal of the basic mandate clause: According to this, a party with less than five percent of the second votes will still enter the Bundestag if it has won at least three direct mandates. This regulation remained in place in the most recent federal election.
But Karlsruhe has essentially confirmed the new system, in which only the second vote decides on the number of seats and a direct mandate no longer automatically guarantees entry into the Bundestag. The result: After the federal election, 23 constituency winners were not allowed to take up their direct mandate; Most of them belong to the CDU and CSU.
By eliminating overhang and compensation mandates, the traffic light's goal of reducing the number of MPs from 736 to 630 was achieved. The Union and the SPD want to stick to the downsizing. But in the coalition agreement they agreed to change the existing federal election law so that every candidate with a first-vote majority gets into the Bundestag without this increasing again.
This is complicated and so far both sides in the responsible working group have not found an alternative to the voting rights introduced by the traffic lights. According to Federal Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the black-red coalition is now a year behind schedule. Time is running out because deadlines for a necessary reorganization of the constituency boundaries must be adhered to: "This is a complex process that takes time, the states have to be involved and therefore it must be clear with which franchise we will vote in the next federal election." Because the Union is particularly affected, the pressure in the Bundestag faction is growing.
The coalition partner SPD is basically going along with it, but is in less of a hurry and has different priorities than the Union: Above all, Social Democrats want to ensure that in the future there will be as many women as men in the Bundestag. The majority of the CDU and CSU view this critically.
The proportion of women in the Bundestag is currently around a third of the members. MP Johannes Fechner, who sits on the coalition commission for the SPD, emphasizes: "We see a need for action to increase the proportion of women in the Bundestag. And we also want to ensure that every constituency is represented by a representative in the German Bundestag."
Things are making progress, says Fechner. But results are still not in sight. CSU regional group leader Hoffmann refers to the schedule: "It hasn't been implemented so far because the coalition partner hasn't gone along with it or has had a different view of things. And that's an issue that has to play a role in the fall."
For the CDU/CSU and the SPD, electoral law is a work in progress for reform, which for some of those involved is a matter of nitty-gritty. It is unclear whether the coalition can deliver on time.
