The legal expert Bijan Moini (37) tells in his book “Our good law” * what is behind our laws and where they come from.
In BILD, the Berlin lawyer explains where our voting rights come from, why we do so Chancellor or Chancellor are not allowed to vote directly and why the 5 percent hurdle should be scrutinized.
BILD: Mr. Moini, where does the right to vote as we know it come from today?
Bijan Moini: “There have been democratic elections in Germany for around 200 years. The first nationwide and somewhat equal and general elections only took place after the German Revolution of 1848 – for the Frankfurt Paulskirchen Assembly. A new constitution was passed there, but it never took effect because the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia swung around at the last moment and finally brutally dissolved the assembly. “
Ballot for the election of the National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1848 Photo: BILD
BILD: Attempts at democracy followed, including in Prussia …
Moini: “Yes, but in Prussia there was three-class voting right until 1918: those who paid more taxes had a heavier vote. So it happened that around 1913 the SPD was able to win 28.4 percent of the votes in the elections, but only received 2.3 percent of the seats in the Berlin parliament – SPD voters were simply too poor. “
BILD: That was also found elsewhere?
Moini: “Yes. For Bremen citizenship, the voters were even divided into EIGHT classes: academics, merchants and other wealthy people thus secured a majority in parliament. Even citizens in suburbs were weighted differently. “
BILD: That was only over in 1918/19 …
Moini: “Exactly. An equally important change in the Weimar Republic: women were allowed to vote for the first time! In the first election – to the Weimar National Assembly – the female turnout was a whopping 90 percent. And: At least 8.7 percent were women in the meeting – a quota that was not reached again until 1953. “
BILD: The Weimar Republic also failed because there was no 5 percent hurdle …?
Moini: “That certainly contributed to this. Up to 17 parties sat in the Reichstag, so majorities were increasingly impossible to organize … “
BILD: … which is why the mothers and fathers of our Basic Law included a threshold clause.
Moini: “… which they did not write in the Basic Law. The 5 percent hurdle is only in the electoral law, so it can be changed with a simple majority. “
BILD: Why should she?
Moini: “Because it puts a lot of strain on the principle of the SAME choice. In 2013 – when the FDP and AfD just failed the hurdle – a total of 15.7 percent of the votes cast were simply lost. The Federal Constitutional Court nevertheless declared the clause to remain valid. But it had already established earlier: The hurdle does not have to apply forever, it always has to be put to the test. “
CDU advertising for the first federal election in 1949: Konrad Adenauer’s Union narrowly won the elections (31%)Photo: Universal Images Group / Getty Images
BILD: Why do we actually have two votes in two columns on our ballot papers?
Moini: “The first vote determines a direct candidate according to the majority voting system – whoever has the most first votes in the constituency receives a direct mandate. The second vote is the more important one, because with it we determine the relationships between the parties in the Bundestag: 20, 30 or 10 percent for different parties. This voting weight ultimately decides on the government and promotes candidates from the party lists to parliament. This mix of voices comes from the post-war period and is probably due to the example of the USA and Great Britain. Both countries have pure majority voting. We received a mixture of their right and the proportional representation of the Weimar Constitution. “
BILD: Why can’t we elect Chancellor directly?
Moini: “There are also historical reasons for this: In the Weimar Republic, the Reich President was directly elected and was directly in charge of ‘his’ government. He appointed the Chancellor and the ministers. In the opinion of later constitutional experts, this office was far too powerful. In this way, Reich President Hindenburg was able to significantly accelerate Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power.
The mothers and fathers of the Basic Law drew conclusions from this. Today we have a politically weak Federal President, elected by delegates from the federal states and the federal government. And the Federal Chancellery is not directly occupied by the electorate, but determined by parliament. The following applies: The Bundestag is the highest representative of the people, the Chancellor is obliged to Parliament and must answer it and thus the people at all times. “
* New in bookstores! Bijan Moini: “Our right – what’s behind the law”, Verlag Hoffmann & Campe, 372 pages; 24 eurosPhoto: Hoffmann and Campe
BILD: The voting age for the federal election is currently being discussed again. As is common in some federal states and municipalities, many are demanding that people aged 16 and over be elected. Another debate?
Moini: “No, the voting age was always an issue. In the 19th century, the mark was up to 25 years, depending on the state. In Weimar it fell to 20 years, in the Federal Republic it rose again to 21. In the GDR, the voting age was 18 from 1949 – even if there were no free elections there. The Federal Republic of Germany only lowered the voting age to 18 in 1970 – among other things, the argument caught on: Anyone who can be drafted into the Bundeswehr should at least be allowed to vote. I don’t see any legal problems for a voting age of 16. “
BILD: Around 60 million Germans were called to vote on September 26th. What do you have to do to be removed from the list?
Moini: “You can only lose your right to vote if you commit certain crimes such as high treason or election fraud. That happens very rarely. It is easier to lose eligibility: For example, it is sufficient to have been sentenced to at least one year imprisonment for a crime. The good news is: Both are valid for a maximum of five years. “