Overview

• The Bundestag’s Wahlausschuss on July 7 nominated SPD-backed Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf and Ann-Katrin Kaufhold alongside Union candidate Günter Spinner for three vacant seats on the Federal Constitutional Court.
• A plenary vote scheduled for Friday requires a two-thirds majority that the Union, SPD and Greens cannot reach without additional support.
• Linke leader Dietmar Bartsch has tied his faction’s backing to the Union addressing its previous blockades of Left nominees in parliamentary oversight committees.
• With the Union formally barred from cooperating with the Linksfraktion and hesitant to depend on AfD votes, governing parties face a dilemma in securing the needed supermajority.
• Friday’s outcome will test whether Berlin’s parties can bridge deep ideological divides to staff Germany’s highest court.