By Gunnar Schupelius
The traffic light coalition wants to downsize the Bundestag. This is long overdue, but there is a much simpler solution than the one currently being proposed, says Gunnar Schupelius.
The Bundestag (736 MPs, 3096 employees) is getting bigger and bigger. The complicated electoral law is responsible for this. It must be reduced to its target size (598 MPs). All parties agree on this, but not on the way to get there.
They have been arguing about this for many years to no avail. The traffic light coalition (SPD, Greens, FDP) has now submitted a proposal that is so complicated that it is difficult to understand.
The voting system is already complicated enough. Everyone has two votes, many voters do not even know exactly why. Now there should be a third voice, the “second first voice”.
The aim is to prevent overhang mandates that arise when a party wins more mandates from the first votes than it is entitled to based on the result of the second vote.
As a result, direct candidates would no longer be able to enter the Bundestag, even if they won the constituency. The AfD had already presented a similar plan.
The small parties, i.e. the Greens, FDP, AfD and Linke, have little interest in direct mandates because they rarely win them. The CDU and CSU, on the other hand, have mostly won and therefore reject the traffic light proposal.
The situation is muddled, but there is a simple possibility: the total number of constituencies in which the direct candidates stand would have to be reduced, otherwise the Bundestag would not grow any further.
This method was already used in 1998 when the number of direct constituencies was reduced from 328 to 299. In 2020, they were tentatively reduced again to 280. The FDP and the Greens wanted to set an upper limit of 250, which the CDU and CSU in particular prevented.
They argue that direct constituencies would then become too large for one candidate to fill. That may be the case, but there will always be some downside.
The goal must be to permanently reduce the number of MPs to a normal level. Because the costs go through the roof: Each of the 736 MPs gets 10,013 euros gross per month as a salary (“compensation”), plus 4,583 euros tax-free as “expenses allowance” and 1,000 euros for office supplies, as well as 23,205 euros for the employment of employees , plus a Deutsche Bahn annual ticket, 1st class, and in Berlin a Mercedes with a chauffeur on call.
The unnecessary oversize of the Bundestag alone costs the taxpayer more than 100 million euros extra per year. That has to end.
Finally shrink this Bundestag! But please with a simple solution and not with an even more complicated electoral law that nobody understands.