Parliament should shrink
Bundestag passes controversial electoral law reform
03/17/2023, 11:40 am
In the future, the Bundestag will only have 630 seats. The traffic light prevails against the fierce criticism of the opposition. The Union and the Left are now going to the Constitutional Court.
The Bundestag has passed an electoral law reform that is intended to reduce the size of parliament and permanently limit it to 630 MPs. The draft by the SPD, Greens and FDP achieved the required simple majority. The Union and the Left Party see themselves disadvantaged by the reform and have each announced a complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court.
The controversial reform of the traffic light coalition was approved with 400 votes. 261 MPs voted against, 23 abstained. The coalition rejected a proposal by Union faction leader Friedrich Merz to postpone the vote by another two weeks. In the past few weeks there have been detailed and open talks with the Union about the reform, said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “Three weeks of intense wrestling doesn’t get any better if we wait another 14 days.”
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