Dundorf

[TheNick]

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Bundestag Approves Constitutional Reform Bringing Back Direct Election of the President

June 5686

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The Dundorfian Bundestag at night.

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Dunburg - The Bundestag gave its final approval to a constitutional proposal of law which would re-introduce the election of the Federal President by direct universal suffrage, amending the current version of the law which states that the election of the Head of State is a responsability of the Legislative branch. This proposal of law was introduced in October 5684 by DSDP Member of the Bundestag Matthias Werner, and received a mostly positive feedback from all parties, except the TLD, and a more neutral/cautious approach by the NDZP and GPP, respectively.

Since this was a proposal of law meaning to amend the Constitution, the bill had to be discussed and approved twice, and in case the bill didn't receive the support of two third of the total members, the approval of this proposal was subject to a confirmatory public referendum vote. In this case, the bill received the support of 2/3 of the members, clearing the threshold. The DSDP, DSU, DRF and KBP were parliamentary groups to state their explicit approval of the bill, the NDZP and the Greens gave their members freedom of choice, while only the TLD group decided to oppose. Based on this, the starting situation was that the "yes" base could count on already 331 votes while the "no" base started at only 60, and both sides had to convince some NDZP and Green members, the so-called "swing" votes, which were 239 in total. Of course, the toughest job was for the opposing side.

The result ended up being 475 votes in favor of the amendment, 98 opposing and 52 abstaining, with five members of the Bundestag being absent, some for health reasons and other some for personal reasons. The President of the Bundestag, upon reading the final tally of the vote, stated that:

[...] having obtained a qualified majority of the members of this assembly voteing in the affirmative, this bill is thereby sent to the Federal President for his final consideration and approval. The session is adjourned.

Which meant that the bill did not need to be confirmed by a public vote and was instead heading immediately to Karlottenberg Schloss awaiting President Prawius's final approval.

After the vote, the Hon. Matthias Werner celebrated the result with a social media post:

The choice is now back in the hands of the people! Thanks to every member who supported this bill and thanks to our party leader @LorenaOberlitz for the support she showed me.

The Office of the Federal Chancellor acknowledged the change, stating: "The passage of this bill amending the Constitution, with such a large majority, is a testament to power of democratic reform, which the NDZP champions as an important factor of stability". Other reactions included the one of the Liberal-Democratic group, the only party to strongly oppose the change, the TLD Bundestag Leader said:

We hoped to convince enough members to vote no and force a public vote on this issue. The TLD acknowledges the change in policy but our position remains the same: the indirect election of the Head of State prevents the radicals and crazy people from being tenants of Karlottenberg.