Report: CSU lacks majority
Union probably does not sue against electoral reform
01/18/2023, 12:55 p.m
The Bundestag currently has 736 seats – a record high. With an electoral law reform, the traffic light coalition wants to limit the number of seats to 598. The CSU and CDU are threatening to file a lawsuit – but according to a report, it should not get the necessary majority.
The traffic light coalition apparently has a good chance of pushing through its proposal for electoral law reform. According to information from Reuters from parliamentary groups, there is apparently no majority in the Union for a legal review complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court. Participants said that this became apparent both in the executive leadership of the CDU and CSU parliamentary group and in the Union parliamentary group meeting.
25 percent of the members of the Bundestag would have to join a norm control lawsuit in writing. The CSU considers the proposed reform proposed by Ampel to retain 299 constituencies, but to abolish all compensation and overhang mandates, to be unconstitutional. However, the Bavarian regional party could have tripped itself up by blocking a reform in recent years: Because in the larger sister party CDU, some are deeply annoyed that the CSU has also lost its own number of MPs in the past legislative periods had rejected compromises between the CDU and other middle parties.
On the other hand, there are doubts as to whether a lawsuit in Karlsruhe could be successful. The pressure for an electoral reform had increased in recent years.
The Bundestag currently has 736 seats. The aim of the coalition draft is to permanently limit it to the standard size of 598 seats. The previous overhang and compensation mandates are to be abolished. Overhang mandates arise when a party wins more constituencies than it is entitled to seats after second votes – the CSU in particular has recently benefited from this. In order to correctly reflect the ratio of second votes, the other parties have so far received compensatory mandates.