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POLITICS

German parliament votes to make itself smaller in disputed reform

The German parliament on Friday voted to cut the number of MPs sharply, in a reform blasted by the leader of Angela Merkel's conservative sister party as an "attack on democracy".

German Bundestag debating chamber
The debating chamber of the German Bundestag in Berlin. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Under the reform, the number of seats in parliament would be slashed at the next elections to 630 from 736.

The plan, put forward by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats as well as coalition partners Greens and the liberal FDP, was adopted with 399 votes in favour, 261 against and 23 abstentions.

The German parliament has been expanding at each election because of a complex voting system which awards seats for direct mandates while also proportionally allocating seats according to the score of the parties.

In Germany, each person gets to cast a vote for a candidate directly, and another vote for a party.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How Germany’s complex electoral system works

A five-percent threshold has to be cleared for a party to send MPs to parliament.

That threshold can only be waived if a party wins three seats directly — a clause that the reform has removed.

Smaller parties like the far-left Linke and former chancellor Merkel’s Bavarian sister party CSU were up in arms, as both risk missing the five percent hurdle.

“This voting rights reform is an attack on our democracy,” charged CSU party leader Markus Söder, adding that Scholz’s coalition was therefore “distorting the will of voters”.

Leader of Merkel’s CDU, Friedrich Merz, also said his party would “not accept such damage to confidence in our democracy”.

Like the conservatives, Linke parliamentary chief Jan Korte said his party will take the case to the constitutional court.

The reform was the “biggest attack” on voting rights “in decades,” he charged.

According to the calculations of the federation of German taxpayers, the reform would help the state save €340 million per election cycle.

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PROTESTS

Six injured and three arrested in far-left protest in eastern Germany

At least six people were injured and three arrested on Friday evening after far-left protesters clashed with police in Leipzig, eastern Germany, with more demonstrations expected on Saturday despite a local ban on marches.

Six injured and three arrested in far-left protest in eastern Germany

Protesters set up road blocks, started fires and threw projectiles at security forces from rooftops and on the streets to protest prison terms handed out to four far-left activists, police said.

At least five police officers and a reporter were injured during the protest, while three out of some 800 demonstrators were arrested.

“We have launched inquires into public disorder, dangerous injuries, assaults on police officers, damage to property and the illegal use of explosives,” Leipzig police tweeted on Saturday.

The unrest came after a court in Dresden, Saxony, on Wednesday sentenced a 28-year-old student identified in German media as Lina E. and three other far-left militants, known as Lennart A., Jannis R. and Jonathan M., aged between 28 and 37, to several years in prison.

Lina E. and the other defendants were found guilty of violent attacks on neo-Nazis and alleged far-right supporters between 2018 and 2020.

In particular, the group was found responsible for six attacks that injured a total of 13 people, with two suffering life-threatening injuries.

Since 2020, when Lina E. was remanded in custody, the slogan “Free Lina” has featured regularly at left-wing protests, with graffiti dedicated to the student now being a regular sighting on buildings in Leipzig, Hamburg and Berlin.

At the time of writing, it appeared that protests would continue on Saturday as far-left activists called on social media for a national day of action in Leipzig despite a ban on demonstrations issued by local authorities.

Leipzig police were reportedly “preparing for potential violence” as the available information “suggests that protesters will still gather in Leipzig on Saturday”, a police spokesperson told CNN on Friday.

At the time of writing, there was a possibility that further protests might be held in other German cities, including Bremen, Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin.

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