German Election System - Bundestag 2025 - New Voting System Explained
Video Overview & Insights
German version: https://youtu.be/uluzo2sEctg
The calculation of the Webster method is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnI8dI5Svc
In the first step, a party gets one seat for every 63550 second votes. So it's just a simple rule of proportion :)
Webster method explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnI8dI5Svc
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What if 9 people from a party wins in a state and the party gets 8 seats according to the state proportion in the bundasteg. How does the party select 8 people out of 9 to the parliament ,is this according to the number of votes they are getting or something else?
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I'm curious, is there any mathematical/technical reason why you wouldn't make the first vote for your local district candidate be done with ranked choice voting? I feel like it would be an improvement on the system since it would avoid the vote splitting of first-past-the-post voting.
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I have some questions concerning the SSW. For this election since 42.8 million second votes were accepted and there were 630 available seats in the Bundestag. That meant that 1 seat in parliament is worth about 68,100 votes. Therefore does that mean the SSW had to get at least 68,100 votes to get 1 seat in the Bundestag? Or is there something else that determines how many seats they get?
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12:52 When will the number exceed 630 seats? why a party with >50% seats leads to exceeding seats?
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Haha. Yeah. It's really simple.
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I personally think Germany should get rid of the 3 district seats requirement and also lower the electoral threshold to 2% (even though I would rather prefer no threshold as I believe thresholds should be natural and organic based on how many seats need to be filled. So in a 9 member district the natural threshold would be 10.1% which means you would need 10.1% to win a seat). The reason why I believe in no threshold or lower thresholds because I think if the electorate wants 10 to 20 parties in the legislature then they should get what they voted for as the legislative branch is intended to represent the diverse viewpoints of the voters. I understand some concerns that it could reward small fringe or extreme parties, but no system could realistically protect its extremism. But what you can do is make it immensely difficult for them to gain power and the only way to do that is have a complete & pure proportional system that produces a diverse legislature with 10 to 20 parties or even 30 parties which is entirely based around what the electorate wants.
We explain the new system that is used in 2025 election for the first time. We also explain "Erststimme", "Zweitstimme", state list, party list, 5%-threshold, and how the Webster method is used to distribute the seats proportionally.
German version here: https://youtu.be/uluzo2sEctg
So what we learn is that you get to vote (2 votes), and that your representative will be chosen by party representatives in a back room. So it means you no longer decide who represents you, the parties do. Only "important parties" are represented, so no new parties will get a foot in the door. And, all this is paid for by you the voter. Karl Marx would approve of such nonsense.
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So lets say a non-minority party wins less than 1 or 2 seats and under 5%. Do those people, even though they won their elections, just not get to sit in the Bundestag?
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#Bundestag #Webstermethod #bundestagswahl2025
I disagree. We pay too much.
Look how they have voted. You
are acting like a blind elitist. One of the few that lives super well. Taxes are to high- you buy from Frances nuclear system right 4:28 near your borders. Makes no common sense and immigration problems. They are your favored citizen, the nonimmigrant become your, and the immigrants slave. It is so wrong.
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Simply awesome video, and more power to you to make many such to enlighten us. I do have one question, in the seat distribution cases explained, in the second case, when the party have won 9 districts but they can have maximum 8, what happened for the 9th winner? For ex, if the 9th winner is from Munchen Süd, will München Süd miss their representative from Bundestag?
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very dumb not to allow directly elected candidates to get their seat
More User Perspectives
Thanks!
@ThuHongNguyennQuestion:
With the second case at the end: How is it guaranteed that each district will have a representative in the Parliament?
Dem unbeseelten Computerton kann ich nicht zuhören. Bei 4:03 abgebrochen.
@marvingainsborougifyI am furious and will be blocking this channel from my feed. Nothing is worse on YouTube than a title that outright LIES about its content. If I am wrong, point it out to me, but I came here looking for information on some "New" Voting System in the FRG. As someone who has been following German government since 1979, I was intrigued to see that the voting system was being changed this year. But I watched the entire video and it appeared to me that nothing is different than what I've known in the past. This was probably useful for people who don't know about the German election system, but for me, it was a waste of my time and yeah, I'm pissed.
@DHD-p4vHow does this system influence the total number of representatives each state gets in the federal parliament? In the end, does that number number result roughly proportional to the number of voters in the state? After twice applying the Webster method, might it not happen that the voters of smaller states get underrepresented?
@toscanomeloHow are the party lists chosen and put in order? Are there primary elections? Do all members of the party have a say? Or is it a decision of the leaders of each party only?
@toscanomeloMay a name appear as a candidate in the first vote ballot for his/her district and, at the same time, appear in the party list for her/his state?
@toscanomeloHow many independent candidates are typically elected via the First Vote? Are there any right now in the Bundestag?
@toscanomeloThe downside of the new system is that in theory it is possible that some of the 299 voting districts will not be represented in the Bundestag with even a single seat. In the past all 299 winners in the voting districts got a seat. That is no longer the case.
@skyscraperfanSo, not a parliament, not representative, and not proportional. 630 seats but you must win 32 or you get 0.
@neuralwarpGreat video! Very well explained! I originally thought the districts were allocated using pure FPTP, but this is a lot more proportional.
Strange that the initial seat share allocation occurs at the national level - What happens with parties who have lists in some, but not all, states? Do they still appear on every second vote ballot paper?
What about the independant candidate?
@Chrissa2No wonder nobody knows how it works. There is so many rules and exception, I feel like you could come up with a system that is much simpler
@distrologic2925Interesting to learn that Germany's abolishing overhang! As I was watching the video I was thinking, "yup, that matches New Zealand" (which copied Germany's system in 1993) up until 11:45, which took me by surprise. Sounds like that's the change for 2025? Thanks for explaining!
@czczleeI would like to point out that the current german electoral system is not technically considered a mixed-member proportional system (MMP). True MMP would guarantee the winners of the single-member districts (SMD) their seats, while trying to achieve proportionality through the apportionment of the list candidates (either with a fixed or variable number of list seats). Since the current system does not guarantee SMD winners a seat in the Bundestag, but rather removes the SMD winners with the smallest majority if a party wins more SMD seats than its second vote percentage would entitle it to in the entire Bundestag (overhang), it would therefore be considered a pure proportional system with a local element.
Excellent video!
As a german, this is helpfull, because they changed it since I learned it in school. Thanks
@notbob3590Hmm. But what happens if an independent gets elected? They get a seat... but then, in that state, the number of seats to be divided among party totals is reduced by one, and the number of seats to be accorded to each party adjusted accordingly? Also, to be clear, each district has only one winner? So only 290 members will be directly elected in that way? And the other 340 will come from the second vote?
@StiloVerso-kn7wnMene bund marni ha stag ki😂😂
@lifeacademy2100Could you do a video on the Webster method?
@caiphillips3377So if a candidate from party B wins a district, but he has the smallest percentage so he doesn't get an actual seat, what party ends up representing that district?
@maxpuente6291So how’re the Chancellor and president elected?
@berlinprepping"the electoral system is actually pretty easy".... then proceed to talk for 12 minutes explaining this not-so-easy system :D
@TheLesiu2459:30 But how Germany guarantees that each state ends up with the exactly amount of representatives they are entitled to based on their population after the 2nd list distribution?
@luisartur8597SSW hell yeah
@ObscuredNightAs an American, this sounds horrific. What a nightmare. You have no idea whether the winner of your district actually gets a seat. What a mess!
@GregWeidmanSeems like quite a complex method
@tehw000000tPoliticians doing mental gymnastics to inflate the parliament as much as possible so everyone can live for the rest of their lives through the tax payers pockets?
@AtilolzzHow is that new?
@JointManJoeAs I understand it, they also got rid of the Direktmandat or the possibility that parties winning less than 5% can enter the Bundestag like Die Linke did in 2021.
@jakakrzHowever you have made a very clear video. Was able to understand German electorial process more clearly. Thank you !
@2mrvamshiWhy so much complications? Can't we put the winners from each districts to be the ones in Bundestag. How can people without any election experience or without any interactions with people get to sit in Bundestag ??? Crazy system. German systems are never flexible! People who win elections should represent people in Bundestag why should others who don't win elections sit in Bundestag!!??
@2mrvamshiWhat you would also often find would be people being on the Partys State List and also running for a direct seat in a district, which would result in them moving up to the district winners.
So in the videos example, if a candidate on party list position 4 gets a majority in their district, they could jump up the list, to the district winners, which would be 3 district winners including them. If the party is given 8 seats in the Bundestag, number 4 moves up to the top 3 district winners and then list candidates 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 would fill the remaining seats, given that only list candidate 4 has won their district from the top 6 candidates on the list.
Are there residency requirements? For first ballot: Does the person have to live in the district he is running to represent? For state party lists: Do the people on it have to be from that state?
@NJ-uh6hzDanke dir vielmals. Ich habe gestern ein paar Videos auf Deutsch geguckt, habe trotzdem nicht komplett verstanden, wie die Zweitstimme funktioniert. Ich weiß, dass es den Anteil der Parlamentsitzung entscheidet, verstehe aber nicht ganz, wie es unter 16 Bundesländer geteilt wird.
Du hast richtig gut erklärt. 😃
But why does the total number keep changing with the years?
2025--> 630 seats
2021--> 735 seats
2017--> 709 seats
etc
from the UK and this seems like the most complex thing ever
@joanne0