March 19 () –
The conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) party has announced that it will appeal to the German Constitutional Court the electoral reform law that proposes the reduction of the Bundestag, the Lower House of the German Parliament, which would change the number of deputies from 736 to 630.
The leader of the formation and Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, has announced that he will appeal the law, approved this Friday thanks to the votes of the three parties of the government coalition, considering it “an attack on democracy and federalism”. , in statements collected by the German agency DPA.
“To democracy, because in the future the directly elected deputies will no longer sit in the German Bundestag, but other bodies will decide. And on federalism, because possibly entire regions such as Bavaria will no longer be part of it,” he denounced. .
For the conservative leader, this measure seeks to weaken the opposition, and would cause the CSU to “basically be denied its right to exist.”
The Bundestag was expanded to 736 seats after the 2021 general election. This was the highest number yet and due to trade-offs to avoid “orphan constituencies” where a first candidate is not directly elected by direct vote .
The number of constituencies will remain at 299, but 331 mandates will be assigned through the lists of the federated states, instead of the 299 originally planned.
The aim is to reduce to a minimum the number of deputies who win a constituency with the first vote and fail to enter the Bundestag.
