German opposition party launches legal challenge to reform meant to shrink parliament

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A German opposition party has launched a legal challenge to an electoral reform that is designed to reduce the size of the country’s increasingly bloated parliament. The center-right Christian Social Union is one of two opposition parties that have been vehemently critical of the legislation, which lawmakers approved in March. They see their future place in parliament at risk. They accuse Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition of cobbling together constitutionally dubious rules to favor itself. The Bavarian center-right party’s general secretary said Wednesday that it has filed a complaint to Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court against the “undemocratic, anti-federalist, manipulative and unconstitutional” legislation.