Berlin – New record: With 735 members, the Bundestag is bigger than ever before. Nevertheless, the matter went off halfway lightly, because electoral law experts had warned in recent weeks that there could be well over 800 MPs. So far, 709 members of the Bundestag have had a chair in the Reichstag plenum.
The Taxpayers’ Association (BdSt) sees no reason to breathe a sigh of relief in view of the steadily increasing numbers in the legislative periods. “This development must be stopped,” said BdSt President Reiner Holznagel on Monday. He called for a reform of the electoral law “with a clearly capped Bundestag size.”
So far there is no upper limit for the number of parliamentarians. Since the Union receives more direct mandates, especially in the south of the republic, than it is entitled to according to the second vote results, the number of overhang mandates and thus also that of compensatory mandates is growing.
According to calculations by the taxpayers’ association, the new Bundestag record will result in additional costs of 410 million euros until the end of the legislative period in 2025. The standard size of the Bundestag of 598 members was used to compare the costs. The Bundestag has not had so few members for 20 years.
The Federation of Taxpayers advocates limiting the number of mandates in the federal parliament to 500.
“It’s not just about the excessive costs of the Bundestag, but also about the dignity of each individual mandate,” said Holznagel. “That is why we need a drastic cure in favor of parliamentary democracy! Quality instead of quantity has to be in the foreground again. If citizens demand efficiency and economic action from our state, Parliament cannot exclude itself from this. “
To support its demand, the taxpayers’ association has started a petition on the change.org website.
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