Söder engages in a war of words with the federal government. Now the CSU is suing against the electoral law reform. The CSU boss expects a prompt verdict.
Berlin – When CSU leader Markus Söder was asked on Wednesday about the problems in the Free State, he couldn't resist taking a dig at the traffic light government: “Not everything is perfect in Bavaria either, there are problems here too. The biggest problem is that we are in Germany,” joked the Bavarian Prime Minister, referring to the federal government. Since the last federal election, Söder has more or less made swipes at Berlin his trademark. The joke is part of a number of critical comments by Söder about the federal policy of the traffic light coalition.
Especially in the last few weeks, the CSU boss has increasingly taunted the federal government: at the closed meeting in Seeon, he called for new elections in order to abolish the traffic light “ideology projects”. He emphasized the CSU's willingness to govern and criticized the traffic light policy in the areas of agriculture, migration and defense. “There has never been a government that had as little trust among the population as the traffic light,” Söder recently wrote in one Post on X (formerly Twitter).
Söder taunts against traffic lights – and hopes for a prompt decision on the electoral rights lawsuit
Söder and his party are particularly critical of the traffic light electoral law reform, which makes the Christian Socialists feel disadvantaged. That is why the CSU, the Bavarian state government and the CDU parliamentary group recently sued the Federal Constitutional Court against the new federal election law. The Union is convinced that the reformed electoral law is undemocratic and therefore unconstitutional.
The Bavarian Prime Minister also said on Wednesday that the court could now take action after the lawsuits were filed. Söder is expecting a quick decision from the judges in Karlsruhe. Otherwise the election may have to be reversed, the CSU boss continued. If the Federal Constitutional Court does not promise a decision in a timely manner that would suffice for the election in autumn 2025, the plaintiffs would file an application for an interim injunction.
The electoral law reform was passed in the German Bundestag in June with the votes of the SPD, Greens and FDP. The aim of the reform was to reduce the size of the Bundestag, which currently has 736 members. The Union, the Left and parts of the AfD opposed the law, which now caps the number of seats at 630. The new electoral law still provides for a first vote and a second vote. However, overhang and compensation mandates should be eliminated. As a result, some constituency winners with a direct mandate could no longer enter the Bundestag if their party's second vote result was too low.
Basic mandate clause is important for the CSU and the Left – Söder wants the right to vote “clearly clarified”
The basic mandate clause is also no longer applicable. Through this, parties have previously been able to enter the Bundestag even under the five percent threshold if they were able to win at least three direct mandates. The Left benefited from the clause in the last federal election and entered parliament despite a two-vote result of only 4.9 percent.
For the CSU, which can only be elected in Bavaria, the reform makes it considerably more difficult for the CSU to enter the Bundestag in the coming elections. If the CSU received less than five percent of the vote, it would no longer enter the Bundestag – regardless of how many direct mandates it would win in Bavaria. In the 2021 election, the party only just got over the five percent hurdle with 5.2 percent of the second vote.
However, Söder emphasized that the CSU does not currently have to worry about missing out on entry into the Bundestag. In current surveys, the CSU is at seven percent. Nevertheless, the Bavarian politician was counting on a timely court ruling: “We want the issue to be clearly clarified.” (dpa/LisMah)
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