In the coming months, the people of Baden-Württemberg can show whether the size of the state parliament still suits them. The next steps of the referendum have now been presented.
The state parliament in Baden-Württemberg could become significantly smaller according to the concept of a referendum. “Reduce the size of the state parliament” is the name of the plan, which was approved by the Ministry of the Interior in June of this year.
This required more than 10,000 supporting signatures and a valid bill. The referendum was initiated by an 81-year-old retired chemist from Bietigheim-Bissingen (Ludwigsburg district).
SWR Aktuell presenter Andreas Fischer spoke to Filiz Kükrekol from the SWR state politics editorial team in Stuttgart about where the referendum currently stands.
Initiative “Reduce the size of the state parliament” enters next phase
At a press conference, FDP parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke (FDP), Baden-Württemberg Secretary General Judith Skudelny (FDP) and Dieter Distler from the “Reduce the size of the state parliament” initiative, among others, informed about the next steps.
The next phase of the initiative will start on Monday. Citizens will receive applications for the referendum at various events, including in market places and on a dedicated website. The collection of signatures for the referendum will take a total of six months. In addition, lists will be available in every town hall for three months from September onwards, in which people can express their support for the referendum.
770,000 people must support the referendum
For the initiative to be successful, the support of ten percent of all eligible voters is required, which is around 770,000 people. If this is successful, the BW state parliament must vote on the referendum – i.e. the draft law. If the MPs agree to it without changes, the law is passed and the process is over. Otherwise, a referendum will be held.
FDP had failed with its own referendum
The FDP actually had a referendum to reduce the size of the state parliament and collected signatures for it. The Interior Ministry stopped the project However, last December. The Liberals had submitted enough signatures, but the proposed bill was inadmissible for constitutional reasons, the Interior Ministry announced at the time. Hans-Ulrich Rülke stressed at the press conference that he would continue to support Distler’s referendum.
Hans-Ulrich Rülke (FDP) supports the referendum for a smaller state parliament. The FDP had already wanted to implement a smaller state parliament through its own referendum. The Interior Ministry had rejected this. The FDP is currently suing the Interior Ministry’s decision before the Constitutional Court.
Rülke rejected the criticism of BW Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) that the smaller state parliament would result in a poor relationship between politicians and citizens, and even called this assumption “bizarre”. Rülke accused the Interior Ministry of deliberately ensuring that the referendum could no longer be implemented before the state elections in 2025. This is why the Interior Ministry had on the one hand rejected the FDP’s referendum, but also exhausted the deadlines in Distler’s initiative, said Rülke.
FDP vs. Distler’s Initiative: How do the proposals differ?
Dieter Distler’s initiative, like the FDP, wants to reduce the number of constituencies from 70 to 38. The constituencies would then be the same as in the federal election and in some cases significantly larger than now. The change is intended to result in fewer overhang and compensatory mandates. However, Dieter Distler’s draft law also provides for the state parliament to be reduced to a minimum size of 68 mandates (currently: at least 120 mandates). The FDP did not include this in its proposal. This is the reason why the Ministry of the Interior considers the draft law of Dieter Distler’s initiative to be compatible with the Basic Law and the state constitution and not the FDP’s proposal. In its justification, it states that the state parliament must be elected according to a procedure that combines the personal election (first vote) with the principles of proportional representation (second vote). From the point of view of the Ministry of the Interior, this is the case with Dieter Distler’s draft law (38 direct mandates with a minimum size of 68 mandates), because the proportion is comparable to that in the current state election law (70 direct mandates with a minimum size of 120 representatives).
Initiative wants to make BW state parliament smaller
The submitted bill “Reduce the size of the state parliament” proposes to reduce the number of state constituencies and thus direct mandates from the current 70 to 38. At the same time, the minimum size of the state parliament is to be reduced to 68 mandates, which currently stands at 120.
Criticism and understanding of referendums from other parties
Andreas Deuschle, deputy leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament, can understand that the initiators have their eye on taxpayers’ money. “What I find less understandable is that they start to cut costs when it comes to representing the people,” he told SWR. The task of parliamentarians is to control the government. “Cutting costs there is ultimately a major blow to democracy in our country,” Deuschle emphasized.
Criticism of the plan comes from both the CDU and the FDP and AfD. from left: Andreas Deuschle (CDU), Sascha Binder (SPD parliamentary group), Ruben Rupp (AfD)
For Sascha Binder, the parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, the plan represents a significant reduction in proximity to citizens. “And it means that constituencies will practically always become artificial structures across district boundaries – exactly what people always complain about when it comes to constituencies for the Bundestag and the European Parliament.” Currently, each member of the state parliament has over 51,300 eligible voters – only in one other federal state in the whole of Germany do individual MPs have to represent more people.
According to Binder, the referendum also gives the impression that the state parliament will inevitably grow enormously. “But that would only be the case in unlikely scenarios, and even those would reflect the will of the voters,” said Binder. After all, the initiators assumed across the board that the state parliament is an enormous cost burden for citizens, which is simply not true. According to Binder, Baden-Württemberg currently spends just 0.22 percent of its state budget on its state parliament. “This is also well below average compared to other states.”
BW State Parliament: How do overhang and compensatory mandates come about?
Since a change in the state election law in 2022, voters have had a first and second vote in state elections in Baden-Württemberg – just like in the federal election. The balance of power between the parties in the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg is primarily determined by the result of the second votes. With the Two voices you choose a certain party. With the First vote you decide which person from your own constituency will be elected to the state parliament. Here is a simplified example: The A party wins more constituencies and thus more seats for itself through the first votes than it is actually entitled to in percentage terms through the second votes. Nevertheless, all directly elected candidates of the A party enter the state parliament. This means that so-called Overhang mandates If it remained that way, the A-party would be far too strongly represented in the state parliament. That is why all other parties receive additional seats, so-called Compensation mandates. It will therefore be filled until the number of seats held by Party A again corresponds to the percentage of all seats it won through the two-vote system.
The MP Ruben Rupp (AfD) explained that the legitimate concern to protect the state parliament from costly expansion should not fail due to legal pitfalls. However, he believes that the old state election law is the fairest and most democratic electoral law and criticizes the fact that the new electoral law should not have been approved in principle. By changing the new state election law, the established parties would deprive citizens of the freedom to choose who should actually be sent to the state parliament.
Broadcast on Wed., 7.8.2024 19:30, SWR Aktuell Baden-Württemberg, SWR BW
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