Bundestag: la mida sí importa
HOW TO SHRINK A PARLIAMENT
ANTI-BLOATING MEDICINE: Remember the debate surrounding the size of the Bundestag last year? Even before the election, everyone knew (and feared) it was going to be the biggest one ever, due to Germany’s complex electoral system. We lovingly baptized it “über-Bundestag” at the time, a fitting name for a parliament of 736 members, one of the largest in the world. But now three lawmakers, one per each traffic-light party, have drafted a proposal to put an end to the bloating: The debate, which led nowhere in the past legislative term, is being restarted with a fresh approach.
What’s the diagnosis? Currently, the bloating is caused by a mechanism aimed at creating justice: German voters cast two ballots, one for a candidate in their local constituency and a second for a party. If a party wins more seats via the former than the latter, a process is triggered whereby it gets to keep those seats and other parties are compensated for the imbalance this creates.
What’s the therapy? Sebastian Hartmann, an SPD lawmaker and one of those behind the new approach, said that compensation seats would simply be removed so as to ensure that there will never again be more MPs than originally intended. The beauty of the plan, he said, is threefold. “Voters could be confident that the Bundestag won’t grow larger than 598 seats; we would be able to leave the number of constituencies at 299 as already agreed; and on the local level we would keep the emphasis on the candidate rather than the party,” Hartmann told us.
Any side effects? There may be cases where the candidate who comes in first in a constituency can’t be sent to the Bundestag because the number of seats for his or her party from his or her state has already been reached. For that eventuality, there would be a third vote, an “Ersatz vote,” Hartmann said, with which voters can (but don’t have to) indicate who their second choice would be. The candidate who gets the most actual and Ersatz votes combined would then be sent to the Bundestag.
Bavarian cure skeptics: Criticism is sure to come from Bavaria, where the mighty Christian Social Union (CSU) has benefited from the current system by getting many so-called “overhang seats.” But Hartmann said “you have to think about the electoral system from the point of view of the citizens,” adding that if the CSU doesn’t like the compromise, “they better make their own proposal.” Either way, he said, things cannot stay as they are.
20-V-22, politico Berlin
