Germany to downsize bloated parliament after Constitutional Court ruling

3 months ago 27

Germany’s Constitutional Court approved on Tuesday (30 July) the government’s plans to downsize the Bundestag by roughly 100 lawmakers but threw out some parts of the proposed reform to protect smaller political parties.

With 733 lawmakers, the Bundestag is the largest democratically elected second chamber in the world, ahead of the European Parliament (720) and countries with far greater population sizes, such as India (543).

Germany’s centre-left coalition government passed a reform in March last year to downsize the parliament to 630 deputies, which now stands to be implemented at the next election after the top court found the reform to be constitutional on Tuesday.

“This is also an important signal to the voters. There will be no more uncontrolled growth of the German Bundestag,” said the chamber’s president, Bärbel Bas of the ruling SPD.

“It creates planning security, limits costs and strengthens the Bundestag’s ability to work.”

Germany’s complex electoral law is a hybrid of proportional representation and the first past the post system, which has led to parliament increasing in size, along with increasing fragmentation. The Bundestag had grown after every election since its size was last adjusted in 2002, from 603 MPs to its current record size.

Vested interests had long prevented a comprehensive reform as several lawmakers of the centre-right CDU party, which had led the government for 16 years until 2021, would have lost their seats in case of a reduction.

However, the new reform was also challenged in court as two smaller opposition parties – the progressive leftist Linke and the Bavarian regional party CSU, CDU’s sister party – feared disadvantages.

Their concerns related to the government’s attempt to abolish an exception to Germany’s electoral threshold: This used to grant representation to parties whose vote share is below the 5% threshold if they manage to get three candidates elected in constituencies – which the Linke benefited from in the last election in 2021.

Small parties saved

The court sided with the opposition on Tuesday, leaving the exception in place for the moment.

This means that seat shares of both the Linke and the CSU would remain the same in the next election in 2025 if they score similar results as in 2021, while the overall number of lawmakers would still shrink to 630.

The CDU/CSU leader, Friedrich Merz, currently the favourite to become chancellor in 2025, said in a statement that the government’s “attempt to eliminate competition via the electoral law had failed”.

[Edited by Oliver Noyan/Zoran Radosavljevic]