60 Years of German Parliament
The German Parliament called Bundestag has already existed for 60 years now. It was founded on September 7, 1949 in Bonn. Nowadays (since 1999) the German Bundestag is located in Berlin, because this is the capital city of Germany.
German Bundestag is Legislative Branch
The German Bundestag is the center of legislative power in Germany. As in other countries we have three branches in Germany (legislature, executive and judiciary). The German Bundestag can propose and pass laws, for important topic the Bundesrat has to agree, too.
Political groups usually organise in so called factions to be able to discuss about some topics. These factions consist of people of the same Party or people from different parties who cannot be voted in the same parts of Germany. E.g. CSU is only votable in Bavaria and CDU in the rest of Germany, but in parliament they form one faction called CDU/CSU.
Elections at the End of September
Every four years a new election for parliament takes place. The next elections for German Parliament will be on September 27, 2009. It is very probable that CDU will get the most votes, SPD (Social Democratic Party Germany) lost a lot of their votes. According to current polls CDU will get 35% and SPD 21%.
The German left-wing party (Die Linke) have gained a lot of new voters this week (14% this week, 10% last week). The other two parties are FDP (Free Democratic Party) and the Green (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen).
Current Allocation of Factions
| Faction | Seats | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| CDU/CSU | 222 | 36.3% |
| SPD | 221 | 36.2% |
| FDP | 61 | 10.0% |
| Die Linke | 53 | 8.7% |
| Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | 51 | 8.3% |
| without faction | 3 | 0.5% |
The current coalition consists of CDU/CSU and SPD who have a majority of more than 2/3 (needed for big decisions), the opposition is being formed by FDP, Die Linke, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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