German court upholds plan to shrink parliament

By AFP
July 31, 2024
A general view during a plenum session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a government statement about the upcoming European Council meeting, in Berlin, Germany, October 19, 2023. — Reuters
A general view during a plenum session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a government statement about the upcoming European Council meeting, in Berlin, Germany, October 19, 2023. — Reuters

BERLIN: Germany´s highest court on Tuesday largely approved plans to shrink the country´s parliament, despite objections from smaller parties who say the reform is unfair to them.

The conservative CSU and far-left Die Linke had appealed to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe about the changes, passed by the Bundestag lower house in March 2023.

But in its ruling on Tuesday, the court approved the main part of the reform, which will slash the number of seats in parliament to 630 at the next election from 733 now. The German parliament has expanded in recent years because of a complex voting system which awards seats to the winners of constituency votes, as well as according to each party´s nationwide vote share.

The new rules will abolish extra seats awarded when a party earns more direct mandates than it is entitled to based on its share of the vote.

The change will mean some candidates could miss out on a seat in parliament despite being directly elected in their constituency.

The government had also wanted to abolish a rule that means a party can still be represented in parliament even if it wins less than five percent of the vote, as long as it gets at least three constituency seats.