Fast Facts

The Introduction of American strategies into German election campaigning

David Neumann

1. Who are the five parliamentary parties and what do they stand for?

1.1 SPD - Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The SPD is the traditional German labor party. For the last elections the SPD has shifted to the right, in order to take away votes from the Christian Democrats. Chancellor candidate Gerhard Schröder and party leader Oskar Lafontaine led the SPD to victory in 1998, and the SPD returned to government in a coalition with the Green Party after 16 years of opposition.

Some of their positions on issues are:

- Long term goal is full employment in Germany. Alliance for jobs between government, employers and trade unions, in order to create more jobs.

- Limit immigration.

- Allow dual citizenship.

- Get rid of nuclear power plants within the next 20-30 years.

- Reduce size of military forces. Support NATO and consider German military involvement in peacekeeping missions on a case-by-case basis.

- lower taxes for low earners.

Internet URL: http://www.spd.de

1.2 CDU - Christian Democratic Union

The Christian Democratic Union is the traditional catholic party. Still today, the percentage of catholics in the party is still very high. The Christian Democrats have been the strongest party in Germany from 1983 to 1998, with Helmut Kohl as the German chancellor.

Some of their positions on issues.

- Lower unemployment, lower starting pay for skilled labor, provide government subsidies to those who take low paying jobs.

- oppose dual citizenship, but for reducing the obstacles in obtaining the German citizenship.

- Cut Germany’s contributions to the EU.

- Maintain nuclear plants.

- maintain military strength.

- Keep immigration to a minimum, deport illegal immigrants as fast as possible.

Internet URL: http://www.cdu.de

1.3 Grüne/Bündnis ‘90 - Green Party.

The Green party is in the federal government for the first time. They were founded in the late 70’s and had great success in the beginning with their ecological focus on policies. However, in the 90s the Green party struggled, and got no more increase in support. The Green Party receives very small support from the eastern German voters. Also, the party has had quarrels in the past about the political direction. Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister, is the leading personality of the party. He is on the moderate wing of the Green Party.

Some of their positions on issues.

- Demilitarization, arms reduction

- reappraisal of NATO

-removal of all nuclear weapons

- more recycling, ban of genetically manipulated food.

- allowing same-sex marriages with equal law status

Internet URL: http://www.gruene.de

1.4 FDP - Free Democratic Party.

The liberal, market-oriented Free Democrats have been in the government for 29 years by switching coalition partners. Now they are in the opposition for the first time since 1969. During these years, the Free Democrats lost more and more political weight and in the end had the image of a subdivision of the Christian Democrats, without any political independence. In many state elections, the Free Democrats have dropped well under the 5%-hurdle, and they are struggling in the federal elections as well.

Some of their positions on issues.

- Expand NATO further eastwards, form a strategic partnership with Russia and Ukraine.

- Set income tax brackets at 15, 25, 35%, cut corporation tax, simplify German tax code by abolishing tax breaks.

- Sell off all federal government holdings within five years.

Internet URL: http://www.fdp.de

1.5 PDS - Party of Democratic Socialism

The party of Democratic Socialism is a successor of the ruling socialist unity party of the German Democratic Republic. The party almost gets their votes almost exclusively from eastern Germans, and it has been in the German parliament since the first election after the re-unification in 1990. In the 1998 elections, the PDS came close to the Christian Democrat’s results in the eastern states, receiving more than 20 percent. The party is strongly socialist and anti-capitalist, but officially favoring democracy. Many western Germans doubt that their goals are democratic, and the party is under observation by the German constitutional security.

Some of their positions on issues:

- tax private wealth, keep income tax high, tax banks and insurers

- retreat from European monetary Union, keep the national currency (Deutschmark).

- Stop NATO expansion and German military participation, ban arms exports.

- impose a 21 percent tax on luxury items

Internet URL: http://www2.pds-online.de/bt/frameset.htm

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The SPD with candidate Gerhard Schröder won the elections unexpectedly clear with 40.9% of the vote, a result 4.5% better than the 1994 result. Simultaneously the Christian Democrats had a loss of 6.3%, dropping to 35.2%. This was the worst result ever for the Christian Democrats. The changes in support for the two major parties can be considered rather large in a multiparty democracy, and especially for Germany, since the voters are notoriously cautious about government changes. The Social Democrats formed a coalition with the Green party. The new government has a majority of 21 seats in the parliament (see graphics).

Of the small parties, only the PDS could gain percentage points, and jumped the 5%-hurdle for the first time. The Green Party lost percentage points, but can still be considered a winner as they are part of the new government coalition.

The parties of the extreme right wing had almost no support in these election and all of them fell short of the 5% necessary to enter parliament, like in all federal elections before.

The elections had a record-high turnout of 82.3%

3. The voting system in Germany.

The voting system of the Federal Republic of Germany is a combination of majority and proportional vote. Each eligible voter has two votes, one for a candidate in his/her voting district and one for a party. One half of the delegates going to parliament is determined by simple majority of the first votes, the other half is determined by proportion of the second votes. Each party presents a list of candidates, and a number of candidates proceeds to the parliament, according to the proportion of votes the party gets.

It is allowed to split up the first and second vote between two parties. This is mostly used by supporters of smaller parties, since their candidates usually have no chance in the voting district races, with their first-past-the-post ballot. Therefore, these supporters sometimes vote for the SPD or CDU (in eastern Germany also for the PDS) candidate with their first vote.

The German voting result represents the percentage of second votes for each party. The parliament has to be newly elected at least every four years.

Since Germany is divided into 328 voting districts, the parliament has a minimum of 656 seats. There are special cases, in which additional seats are added to the parliament.

In order to prevent splinter parties from entering the parliament and blocking legislation, the 5%-Hurdle was imposed in 1953. This means that a party will only be represented in the parliament if it gains at least 5% of the second votes. There is one other possibility to get into the national parliament, which had been the case for the PDS in 1990 and 1994: If one party wins three or more voting district, it is also allowed to enter the parliament. This exception was designed to give parties with strong regionally bound support (as the PDS) a chance to represent their voters in the legislation process.

4. Campaign cost and their partial reimbursement

The parties are entitled to public funds under the constitution and the law on political parties. "Funds are distributed according to the degree of public support, which is determined by the parties’ result in European, federal and state elections, and by the size of annual party income" ("Inter-Nationes ")

For each vote, the parties get 1.30 DM until they reach DM 5 million ($ 3,1 million). If they get more votes than that, they get 1 DM for each additional vote. "They are allocated in addition DM 0.50 from public funds for every DM they receive in the form of members’ contributions or donations" ("Inter-Nationes"). Only parties with more than 0.5 percent of the vote are entitled to the funds. The public funds may not exceed DM 230 million ($ 144 million).

In the 1998 campaign, the SPD had a campaign budget of DM 77 million (about $48,000,000), while the Christian Democrats’ budget was DM 50 million (about $31,000,000).

Like in the United States, the legislative branch of Germany consists of two houses, the "Bundestag" (comparable to the House) and the "Bundesrat" (Senate). While the Bundestag is elected entirely new every four years, the Bundesrat retrieves its composition out of the state elections of the sixteen German states, which take place throughout the legislative term of the Bundestag. The Bundestag represents the regional voting districts and the partisan proportion in Germany, while the Bundestags acts as counterweight, representing the 16 states of Germany.

The Bundesrat is of less importance than the Bundestag. However, more than half of all bills require its formal approval. The Bundesrat has veto rights on these bills, but the Bundestag can override the vetoes. Constitutional amendments, however, can only be passed with a two-third approval by both houses.

In Germany's parliamentary system, the office of chief executive and head of state is separated. The chancellor is the leader of the government, and has the legitimacy to control the basic direction of policies. The federal president, on the other hand, is the main representative of the country, but has very limited political influence. Although the chancellor has to be sworn into office by him, the president usually has no other choice than to accept the parliament’s decision (unless the election ends in a draw). Therefore the president's office is only formally the highest office in Germany.

The Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag. The president is elected by a council, consisting of both houses. The chancellor's term is bound to the support of the parliament, he can be replaced by a new candidate if the parliament shows no confidence in him, and a successor with a support majority can be found. The president has a five year term and can be reelected once. He can only be removed by rule of the Supreme Court if he has acted unconstitutionally.