Constitutional complaint planned: Angry CSU campaigns against electoral law reform

constitutional complaint planned
Angry CSU campaigns against electoral reform

The Christian Socialists raved about the Bundestag decision on the reform of the electoral law and only a short time later decided to file a constitutional complaint in Karlsruhe. The regional party threatens to be thrown out of parliament in Berlin in the next election – just like the Left Party.

One day after the Bundestag decision on the electoral law reform, the CSU decided to file a constitutional complaint. The decision in a switch of the CSU board was unanimous, as reported by participants. The constitutional complaint – like a lawsuit from the Bavarian state government – should be filed before the summer break, announced CSU boss and Prime Minister Markus Söder. He also called on Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to stop the controversial electoral law reform and not to sign the law.

The traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP pushed through the electoral law reform on Friday with their majority in the Bundestag – against the bitter resistance of the CSU and the Left Party. With the reform, the Bundestag, which has grown to 736 MPs, is to be permanently reduced to 630 seats from the next election in 2025. This is to be achieved by dispensing with overhang and compensation mandates. So far, these have caused the Bundestag to become increasingly bloated.

According to the new rules, it could happen in the future that an applicant wins his constituency directly, but still does not get into the Bundestag. This angers the CSU in particular. In addition, a strict five percent clause should apply. The so-called basic mandate clause does not apply. So far, it has ensured that parties with the strength of their second vote result also entered the Bundestag if they were less than five percent but won at least three direct mandates. The Left Party benefited from this in 2021. Depending on the election result, the omission of the clause could also have consequences for the CSU, whose direct candidates traditionally win most constituencies in Bavaria. Should it fall below five percent nationwide, it would be kicked out of the Bundestag.

CSU is “denied the right to exist”

“This is an attack on democracy and federalism,” said Söder after the CSU board switch. “On democracy, because directly elected members of parliament will no longer sit in the German Bundestag, that will then be decided by some other committee. And on federalism, because entire regions like Bavaria may no longer be there.”

Söder criticized that the traffic light parties are not concerned with reducing the size of the Bundestag, but with weakening the opposition and Bavaria. Almost nine million votes could be “rationalized away,” he argued — a deep violation of the principles of state and federalism. And the CSU is basically “denied the right to exist”.

“I have respected the special regional position of the CSU for years. But this CSU does not stand in 15 federal states. And it cannot be that the CSU, as a regional party, dictates to the German Bundestag what the electoral law looks like,” said Britta Haßelmann, leader of the Greens in a heated Bundestag debate, the reform of the electoral law.

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