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The Megalomania of a Political Party: The FDP Loses before the Federal Constitutional Court and then Loses the Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Meredith Anne Taylor

Extract

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During Germany's recent general elections the Freien Demokratischen Partei (Free Democratic Party – FDP) sought to position itself as the focal point of the heated political race between the Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), led by Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), led by incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. By staking out the ideological middle ground and employing a well-packaged campaign, the FDP hoped to assure itself the role of coalition partner in any government formed after the September 22nd general election. The FDP, in a first for one of the smaller political parties, ran its photogenic Chairman, Guido Westerwelle, as an independent candidate for Chancellor. The party also set for itself the goal of obtaining 18% of the popular vote (a target nearly triple its performance in the 1998 general election), making “18/2002” the party's campaign slogan. Had the FDP succeeded in obtaining only 9% of the popular vote (half its goal), it would have indeed played the controlling role in post-election negotiations over a coalition government. As it turned out, however, the FDP stumbled through debilitating controversy up to the last minute of the election and ended with a mere 7.4 percent of the vote. Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was able to turn to the Green Party (which charged to a surprising 8.6% of the vote), his coalition partner of the last four years, to break his party's deadlock with the CDU/CSU and remain in power.

Type
Research Article
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 10 , October 2002 , E8
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

(1) Newly founded after the War on December 11, 1948, the Free Democrats promote a Liberal platform, supporting a mixture of left-liberal social and right-liberal political/economic values. The FDP, therefore, has staked out a position in the middle ground between Germany's two large political parties of the center-right (CDU/CSU) and center-left (SPD). Though the FDP has served as a coalition partner for both of the large political parties, it last shared a role in government during Chancellor Kohl's (CDU/CSU) sixteen-year tenure that ended in 1998.Google Scholar

(2) The major parties found themselves in a dead-heat at the end of the election, both the CDU/CSU and SPD having earned 38.5% of the popular vote. See, Bundestagswahl 2002, FAZ.NET, 30 September 2002, http://faz.net/s/RubB14F8BC87A2B47C8ABC9226E5D69CB15/Tpl~Eevent~Soverview.html.Google Scholar

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(5) There had never before been televised debates between Chancellor candidates. The German political system is (and remains so, in spite of the evolution indicated by this year's debates) party-centered as opposed to personality-centered.Google Scholar

(6) BVerfG, 2 BvR 1332/02 from 30 August 2002, http://www.bverfg.de/ (citing the decisions of the Higher Administrative Court for the State Nordrhein-Westfalen, 8 B 1444/02, 15 August 2002; Regional Administrative Court of Cologne, 6 L 1634/02, 19 July 2002).Google Scholar

(7) “All persons shall be equal before the law.” Article 3.1, GG.Google Scholar

(8) Article 5.1, Political Parties Act.Google Scholar

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(10) The Chamber found that the FDP's application had not fulfilled the preconditions for the Court's acceptance of a case for full review: the case does not present a matter of fundamental constitutional importance; to the degree that the case presented a question regarding the equality of opportunity established by Article 3.1 of the Basic Law, the Court had already clearly determined the issue. See, Article 93a.2 Bunderverfassungsgerichtsgesetz (BVerfGG – Federal Constitutional Court Act). BVerfG, 2 BvR 1332/02 from 30 August 2002, Para 1, http://www.bverfg.de/.Google Scholar

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(16) 14 BVerfGE 121 (translation from Donald P. Kommers, THE CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY (2nd ed. 1997)).Google Scholar

(17) BVerfG, 2 BvR 1332/02 from 30 August 2002, Para 7, http://www.bverfg.de/.Google Scholar