Overview

• Bundestag president Julia Klöckner has formally asked all parliamentary factions to compile existing reform models for resolving direct mandate gaps, declining to propose her own plan.
• Her appeal follows the February election outcome where 23 constituency winners were excluded from parliament and four districts went unrepresented after overhang and compensation mandates were removed.
• Klöckner has warned that devaluing the first vote creates a legitimacy and representation issue despite the parliament’s reduced size.
• Under the coalition agreement, an expert commission is preparing concrete amendments to restore every direct mandate while maintaining the Bundestag at 630 seats by year-end.
• The commission’s remit extends to evaluating gender parity in the Bundestag and the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16.