If you are like me and born in the mid-2000’s you probably don’t remember any other German chancellor than Angela Merkel. One of the most powerful women in the world has been in office for 16 consecutive years! This year she will be retiring from office. On September 26th, Germans voted for a new Bundestag as they do every four years but this election was predicted to cause major changes in the Bundestag due Merkel leaving but also the most pressing problems such as climate change, digitalization, among others.
The German electoral system is complex, even complicated because it tries to prevent the same mistakes of the “Weimar Republik” which ended in WW2. Each voter casts two votes during the election. The first vote goes directly to a candidate of the 299 constituencies to enter parliament (this fills 299 seats), the second vote is a general vote that goes to a party. Each party has a list of candidates and depending on the number of votes obtained, politicians from that list (the candidates called are the one’s starting on the top of the list) will enter the “Bundestag”. The second vote fills the rest of the 598 seats available. However, the number of seats can also increase due to a peculiarity in the German electoral system which has caused a massive growth in the parliament up to the point that it has become too large. So large in fact that Germany has the second largest parliament after China. “The second vote determines the proportion of seats a party gets in the Bundestag but a party could receive additional seats if they win more constituency seats in a federal state than they would be entitled to by the second vote.” (Euro News). In order for a party to obtain seats in the “Bundestag” at least 5% of the population has to vote for the party or at least three direct mandates need to be won.
In the last election in 2017 Merkel’s party the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) received 246 seats while in 2021 they obtained 196 seats. This year the SPD (Social Democratic Party) received the most votes, increasing their previous number of seats from 153 to 206. In addition, reflecting current global issues such as climate change, the Green party won 118 seats compared to the 67 seats they held in the parliament.
Unlike presidential systems like the United States or Peru, Germans cannot vote directly for the chancellor. A party has to win more than 50% to be the majority in the Bundestag, when this doesn't happen a coalition has to be formed by the parties to reach the majority in the parliament. A coalition is an agreement between two or more parties to work together as the majority. Negotiating the coalition agreements can take several weeks. The candidate of the party with the majority of votes usually becomes chancellor. The chancellor is endorsed by the president and confirmed by the Bundestag through a vote. Currently, the “Traffic light” coalition (Greens, FDP which is the Free Democratic Party and the SPD) is negotiating . This coalition would place the CDU in the opposition after many years of being the biggest party in the parliament. of being the ruling party. Once the parties agree on the policy and actions they will take as a coalition they sign the coalition contract forming a new government.
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Bibliography:
Chadwick, Lauren. “How Does the German Election System Work?” Euronews, Euronews, 22 Sept. 2021, www.euronews.com/2021/09/21/how-does-the-german-election-system-work.
Diamond, Jeremy Scott, et al. “2017 German Election Results.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-german-election-results/.
Euronews & AFP. “Germany's Traffic Light Coalition Moves Closer to Forming a Government.” Euronews, Euronews, 15 Oct. 2021, www.euronews.com/2021/10/15/german-election-traffic-light-coalition-moves-closer-to-forming-a-government.
Kirby, Paul. “Germany Elections: Centre-Left Claim Narrow Win over Merkel's Party.” BBC News, BBC, 27 Sept. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58698806.
Knight , Ben. “German Election: A Guide to Possible Coalitions for the New Government: DW: 17.05.2021.” DW.COM, Deutsche Welle, 17 May 2021, www.dw.com/en/german-election-a-guide-to-possible-coalitions-for-the-new-government/a-38756817.
NA. “Parliament & Parties.” Facts about Germany, Facts about Germany, www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/politics-germany/parliament-parties.
Schumacher , Elizabeth. “Bloated Bundestag: Trouble for German Democracy?: DW: 15.09.2021.” DW.COM, DW.COM, 15 Sept. 2021, www.dw.com/en/bloated-bundestag-trouble-for-german-democracy/a-59188371.
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