On Sunday September 26, the Germans go to the polls to elect at least 598 deputies to the Bundestag, the parliamentary assembly. “At least”, because their number is not fixed across the Rhine, and depending on the configuration it can increase quite considerably: they were 709 at the end of the previous elections, in 2017.
Indeed, the German electoral system is mixed, with a proportional philosophy:
- half of 598 deputies (299, therefore) are elected in the constituencies single-member ballot, by relative majority – as if, in France, your deputy were the candidate who won in the first round;
- the other half are elected through a party list system (and by Land). The person expected to be chancellor is placed at the top of this list, then the candidates are elected in order according to the percentage of votes obtained by the party, as for the European elections, for example.
If you are a German voter, you therefore vote twice on Sunday: first for the member of your constituency (“first vote”, say the Germans), then for a list by party in each Land (“second vote”), which will have representatives if the party exceeds 5% nationwide.
Proportional distribution and mathematical gymnastics
This is when the system tightens up and the number of deputies can increase beyond the 598 initially planned. Several cases can occur:
- if the proportional (“second vote”) gives a party as many deputies as the constituency vote (“first vote”), no seat is drawn from the list;
- if proportional representation gives a party more representatives than constituency voting, the number of seats is completed by taking the candidates from the list, in order (this is the “direct mandate”);
- if proportional representation gives a party fewer representatives than those elected in constituency (with the first vote), the Bundestag uses the party list and gives “additional mandates” (überhangmandate), which correspondingly increase the total number of parliamentarians.
Since the entry into force of the 2013 electoral code, remember Slate, these additional mandates must represent the results of the proportional (the second vote), which can theoretically increase their number exponentially: “It is quite possible that the next Bundestag will not have 598 deputies, but more than 700”, wrote theFederal Agency for Civic Education.
Indeed, at the end of the 2017 elections, the Bundestag had 709 deputies, that is 111 more than the theoretical minimum : “This is the result of the compensation mechanisms in seats provided for by the federal electoral law”, as detailed in the Bundestag itself. In doing so, the Greens (Die Grünen, associated with Alliance 90) obtained ten additional mandates (out of their 67 seats); the Liberals of the FDP, ten (out of 80 in the Bundestag); the radical left, Die Linke, ten (out of a total of 64), etc.
The coalition, a delicate exercise but common across the Rhine
While the French electoral system was designed to emerge a clear majority in the National Assembly, that of post-war Germany favors pluralism, which requires the creation of coalitions to govern.
With the exception of the federal election of 1957, where the CDU-CSU (conservatives) won 277 seats (out of 518, i.e. an absolute majority established at 260), no German party has ever managed to lead the Republic on its own. Federal of Germany.
Coalitions are generally defined by the traditional colors of the parties. Thus, the alliance between the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and the Greens, in power between 1998 and 2005, was described as “red-green”. The rule is not universal, however, since the outgoing coalition, made up of the SPD (in red) and the CDU-CSU (in black) is qualified as a “grand coalition” (fat Koalition).
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