The party of the Danish minority and the national Frisians had taken part in a federal election for the first time in 60 years.
(Photo: dpa)
Flensburg For the first time in around 70 years, the Südschleswigsche Voters’ Association (SSW) is returning to the Bundestag with a member. The party of the Danish minority and the national Frisians had taken part in a federal election for the first time in 60 years.
As a party of the national minority, it is excluded from the five percent hurdle and only had to win so many votes that it is entitled to a seat according to the calculation process. The SSW could only be elected in Schleswig-Holstein.
In future, Stefan Seidler from Flensburg – a representative of the Danish minority – will formally sit for SSW as a non-attached member of parliament. Already early in the evening, projections saw the SSW with a member of the Bundestag. The SSW did the math itself at the election party in Flensburg and around 10:20 p.m. was convinced that it would work.
Seidler went to the microphone to the cheers of his supporters and announced: “We’re inside. One mandate. It has to go with very wild things now, if it doesn’t work. ”The SSW could be an independent voice for the minorities, for Schleswig-Holstein and put its finger in the wound“ if we come up short again ”, said Seidler.
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The SSW has been a fixture in Schleswig-Holstein for decades and is represented in the state parliament and in many local parliaments. From 2012 to 2017, the party was also involved in the state government.
The SSW was founded in 1948 by order of the British military government to represent the interests of the Danish minority. When it was founded, the national Frisians in North Frisia also joined the party. The five percent clause introduced in 1950 initially also applied to the SSW. In connection with the Bonn-Copenhagen Declaration of 1955, which laid down the protection of minorities on both sides of the German-Danish border, the SSW was exempted from the five percent clause.
For the SSW it is a return to the Bundestag after a very long time. In 1949, Hermann Clausen was the only member to date to enter parliament for one legislative period. In 1961 the party decided not to run for the federal parliament anymore. Since then, a comeback has been discussed regularly, but always rejected by a majority. In September 2020, a party congress then voted by a majority to participate in the 2021 federal election.
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