The signing of the law on the controversial reform of the electoral law by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has sparked criticism in the CSU. “I am sorry that the federal president did not use his opportunities to work for a fair and constitutional electoral law,” said Alexander Dobrindt, head of the CSU deputy in the Bundestag. “We will immediately bring a lawsuit against this law of disrespect and this manipulation of the right to vote at traffic lights in the Constitutional Court.”
The reform to resize the Bundestag, which has risen to 736 deputies, will be able to enter into force after the signing of the law. According to the federal president’s office, Steinmeier has no constitutional concerns. This showed that, according to the Basic Law and the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court, the legislator was free to structure the right to vote. However, it was regretted that it was not possible to find a broad political consensus for the reform.
“We know something like this from Orbán or Kaczyński”
Rarely in the same boat as the CSU, the left is loudly complaining about the electoral reform bill, which serves only the governing parties of the traffic light coalition. “Three ruling parties have united electoral rights from which only they benefit. We know something like this from Orbán or Kaczyński,” writes Jan Korte, the party’s first parliamentary secretary Chirping. “As an independent authority, a federal president would never have signed it. The fact that he did so shows how superfluous his mandate is.”
After Steinmeier’s signing, SPD deputy parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese said the signing finally put an end to “the Union blockade with numerous cross-fires by the CSU, which for years had only its own advantage in mind” . FDP parliamentary group deputy leader Konstantin Kuhle was also relieved. “A review by the Federal Constitutional Court should be eagerly awaited,” he wrote Chirping.
