Where is the beauty or the efficiency of the German electoral system?
For years, every time there has been talk of electoral reforms in Italy, praise has been heard of the German system. The Scratches of Damato
How short is memory in politics. With elections in Germany, and with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel out of action by spontaneous decision, not having even re-proposed after 16 uninterrupted years of power, everything seems uncertain about the new government. The arrival of which, at best, partly due to the habits of that democracy and partly due to the complexity of the only apparently clear results, is not expected before Christmas. Then we in Italy will be grappling with the race to the Quirinale, perhaps again leafing through the margherita on the yes or no by Sergio Mattarella to the confirmation just proposed to him, according to a background not denied by the Giornale , by the Prime Minister himself at a dinner last Thursday, receiving an enigmatic smile in response: I would say Pirandello, due to the Sicilian nature of the person concerned.
For years, every time there has been talk in Italy of electoral reforms, which we have managed to produce like rabbits, between Parliament, referendums and sentences of the Constitutional Court, we have had to hear the praise of the German system. And we just missed that at a certain point a majority was really created to import it because it would have guaranteed us, perhaps even more than the mixed system introduced in 1993 with the Latinized name of the current head of state, to know immediately who had won and who had lost the election. Do you remember? In addition, that system was recommended, and envied, because to overthrow a government it is necessary to have one that is practically ready to take its place thanks to the so-called constructive distrust. Do you remember this too?
Instead, it happened in Berlin not to have found the famous judge of the Brechtian fable, but to have discovered after the counting of the ballots that there is a winner – the Social Democratic candidate for the Chancellery Olaf Scholz, immediately proclaimed himself with a lot of flowers and a smile – but he is not at all sure of making the new government, or even with whom exactly. There is also the defeated, the aspirant of the Christian Democrats or popular Armin Laschet who honestly assumed the responsibility for the failure, almost with tears in his eyes, and moreover forced by his party friends, inclined at this point to accept regenerative penance. of the opposition, to contradict the claim of the Chancellery. Which, on the other hand, is by no means to be excluded, as the last word depends not on the party most voted, and therefore winning in words, but on the allies, or on the "minors". And someone in Italy, in particular among Silvio Berlusconi's bloodless force workers, has already expressed the hope that the long crisis of the German government, in the meantime supervised by the outgoing chancellor, which could also achieve absolute primacy in this waiting for the effective duration of his mandate, ends with the confirmation of the popular at the helm of the German executive.
But then – excuse me – where is the beauty or efficiency of the Germanic electoral system often opposed to the always ramshackle Italian system of the moment? But I would not want to shoot myself in the foot with this question and have to find myself forced, for consistency, to speak well also of this scandal constituted in Italy by blocked lists, not even made up by secretariats, which no longer exist in fact, but by the head of turn of the party, with the voter forced to suffer the choices or kept at home by nausea.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/dove-la-bellezza-o-lefficienza-del-sistema-elettorale-tedesco/ on Tue, 28 Sep 2021 04:28:11 +0000.