I don’t understand the German election system at all.
They seem to have frequent and redundant elections.
For the last two years, Angela Merkel has been ‘on the verge of losing support’, yet she always seems to eke out a win at the tail end. The direction of this country won’t change at all until SHE is replaced. When might THAT happen?
This is mostly the result of a multi party system (figure 7 major parties and 30 minor parties). Each party requires you to be paying member...with monthly dues....to have a vote or say in who is the party chief. There are sixteen states, running on a 5 year vote cycle....each with own schedule. The national election is on a 4 year cycle.
A party has to have 5 percent in an election, to stand in the state, or national government. Top vote getter...has to achieve 50 ownership of delegates....so partnerships are required. Getting a partnership....can take two months of talks after an election...to get the deals both parties desire.
So here in the Merkel case of 2017....the national election was the most low-key election of the past forty years. No one excited the public,and the parties are drifting without public appeal. Toss in public TV being a joke, and fake topics keeping people frustrated....the system is screwed up.
The normal length of Parliament is 4 years, early elections occur if the government is voted down. The last time there was an early election was 2005.
They use mixed-member proportional representation. Meaning they have districts like us where the guy with the most votes wins but you also vote for a party list. Extra members are added based on the party list vote to make it so the percentage of the vote each party gets is roughly equivalent to the total % of members they get to have.
I think mixed-member proportional representation sucks balls.