Germany's election law reform stalls as CSU pressures SPD

The coalition government of the CDU/CSU and SPD has failed to reach agreement on a new Bundestag election law. CSU parliamentary group leader Alexander Hoffmann reiterated that the reform is mandated by the coalition contract and warned that the CSU would not have signed the agreement otherwise. The SPD insists on a parity clause that would require the Bundestag to consist of equal numbers of men and women, a demand defended by parliamentary manager Johannes Fechner.

Both parties agree to keep the Bundestag at 630 seats, the size established by the 2023 “traffic‑light” reform that eliminated overhang and compensation seats. However, the Union’s draft of a “Grabenwahlrecht” – a split‑ticket system allocating half the seats to directly elected district winners and the other half to list candidates – has drawn criticism. Democratic‑research expert Robert Vehrkamp warned that the proposal would disproportionately benefit the far‑right AfD and make the Bundestag’s size unpredictable. A parliamentary election‑law commission was supposed to deliver reform proposals by 2025, but no consensus is in sight.