Battle of Backbone Mountain

The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 election was a coalition of the Alliance 90/The Greens and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), supporting the cabinet of Green Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann.

Current Composition

After the elections of 14 March 2021, the composition of the Landtag is as follows:

Party Seats
Alliance 90/The Greens 58
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 42
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 19
Free Democratic Party (FDP/DVP)[1] 18
Alternative for Germany (AfD) 17
Plenary hall

Elections are conducted using a mixed-member proportional representation system, with a minimum of 5% vote share to receive any seats. However, there are some exceptions, making the Baden-Württemberg election system one of the most complicated in Germany.[2]

The minimum size of the Landtag is 120 members, of which 70 members are elected in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post voting, and 50 are elected by proportional representation. Overhang and levelling seats may be added.

Landtag at night

The main difference in their electoral system compared to the federal Bundestag is that there are no list members, making all members local. Proportionality is maintained by parties awarding remaining seats to candidates within a party who didn't win a geographic district (a Zweitmandat, or "second mandate") ordered by most to least popular (e.g. a candidate losing with 47% of the vote would be placed ahead of a candidate losing with 20% of votes in their district).

Entrance area

This does mean that a candidate who placed second within their district isn't guaranteed a seat, if other losers in their party were more popular and if their party only needs a small number of seats to maintain proportionality.

Historical Composition

Presidents of the Landtag

So far, the presidents of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg have been:

See also

References

  1. ^ In Baden-Württemberg the FDP faction in the Landtag is called FDP/DVP for historical reasons [1]
  2. ^ Neumann, Edgar (16 August 2007). "Landtagspräsident will vier Wahlkreise gestrichen werden" [Parliament President wants four districts eliminated]. Pforzheimer Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2008.
  3. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (12 May 2016). "First Muslim woman elected as speaker in German state parliament". The Independent. London.

External links

48°46′43″N 9°11′01″E / 48.77861°N 9.18361°E / 48.77861; 9.18361