German Bundesrat

The German Bundesrat (commonly referred to as Bundesrat) is part of the parliament of Germany.

The cabinets of the 16 states of Germany appoint the delegations that represent them in the Bundesrat. They can remove them at any time. Normally, a state delegation is headed by the head of government. The delegation is made up of members of the state government.Grundgesetz Article 51

Thirteen of the states of Germany (in German: Bundesländer) have a Minister-Präsident (Prime Minister), the other 3 are city-states which have a Mayor. These prime ministers or mayors each act as chairman of the Bundesrat for one year at a time.

Germany does not have a vice president. Instead if the Bundespräsident (Federal President) cannot do his job the President of the Bundesrat can act in his place if necessary.

 Building 
Although it is a part of the German Parliament, the Bundesrat does not meet in the same building as the Bundestag. Instead new offices and a modern meeting chamber were built inside the old Prussian House of Lords building.

 Number of members 
There are 58 members of the Bundesrat. How many delegates a land (state) has depends on its population. The smallest state, Bremen, has three members. North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous (has the most people) land. It sends six members to the Bundesrat.

The Bundesrat decides most things by absolute majority (at least half of the number of members). That is 35 votes. Some important decisions need two-thirds of all of the possible votes. That is 46 votes.

Each land votes as a block. This means that Berlin, for example, can only cast four yes votes or four no votes. Its delegates cannot choose to vote in different ways. If a land decided to send only one person to the Bundesrat, that person would still have all of the land's votes. Usually the Minister President casts all of his land's votes, even if the other members are there.

If a land has a coalition government (that is, a government of two or more political parties) then all parties must agree how to vote in the Bundesrat. In 2002 Brandenburg did not agree how to vote about the Immigration bill. The Federal Constitutional Court said that the bill was not law because Brandenburg's vote could not be included in the total. This meant that the bill did not get a majority in the Bundesrat.

 States 
Situation as of December 2017.<br/ >
The Minister-President's party is the biggest party of a state's government, and often also the biggest party in a state's parliament.As of July 2017, exceptions can be found in Lower Saxony and Thuringia.<br/ >
All of the votes of a state must be cast as a block. If the parties in a coalition do not agree how to vote then the Bundesrat can ignore that state's vote.

Federal stateInhabitantsin millions 31 December 2013.Minister-PresidentPartyVotes inBundesratParty ingovernmentCDU / CSUParty ingovernmentFDPParty ingovernmentGreensParty ingovernmentLinkeParty ingovernmentSPD  10.63  Winfried Kretschmann  Greens  6  CDU   Greens     12.60  Horst Seehofer  CSU  6  CSU      3.42  Michael Müller  SPD  4    Greens  Linke  SPD    2.45  Dietmar Woidke  SPD  4     Linke  SPD    0.66  Carsten Sieling  SPD  3    Greens   SPD    1.75  Olaf Scholz  SPD  3    Greens   SPD     6.05  Volker Bouffier  CDU  5  CDU   Greens     7.79  Stephan Weil  SPD  6    Greens   SPD    1.60  Manuela Schwesig  SPD  3  CDU     SPD    17.57  Armin Laschet  CDU  6  CDU  FDP      3.99  Malu Dreyer  SPD  4   FDP  Greens   SPD    0.99  Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer  CDU  3  CDU     SPD    4.05  Michael Kretschmer  CDU   4  CDU     SPD    2.24  Reiner Haseloff  CDU   4  CDU   Greens   SPD    2.82  Daniel Günther  CDU   4  CDU  FDP  Greens      2.16  Bodo Ramelow  Linke  4    Greens  Linke  SPD  

 Related pages 
 President of the German Bundesrat
 List of presidents of the German Bundesrat

 References 

 Other websites 
 Bundesrat (Germany) 
 Members of the Bundesrat (German Wikipedia)


Category:Politics of Germany
Category:Parliaments