Many small parties are in danger of failing to collect the necessary signatures to participate in the upcoming federal election, according to a survey by the “Tagesspiegel” among several parties.
According to their own statements, only two of the twelve small parties that responded to the inquiry have collected enough signatures to run in every federal state: Volt and the MLPD. Two more, the Family Party and the Animal Protection Alliance, have announced that they will not be participating in the federal election.
The remaining eight parties have either not collected enough signatures in every state or have limited themselves to specific states. The Animal Protection Party, among those that will not be running nationwide, has collected the most signatures, with a total of six states, although some of these are still pending verification on the party’s website.
All other small parties surveyed, if they are to participate at all, will only make it onto the ballot in a few federal states. The Humanists Party (PdH) says it will be able to run in three states, while the former successful Pirate Party claims to have collected enough signatures in two states, according to its website.
Martin Sonneborn, chair of the satirical party “The Party”, reports that his party will also be able to run in two states, with the outcome in further states still uncertain. The “Menschliche Welt” will only make it onto the ballot in Bremen, according to its own statements. The Christian “Bündnis C” has, according to a party spokesperson, not collected enough signatures in any state to qualify.
The Ecological Party ÖDP did not provide information on the current state of its signature collection, with the Berlin branch having already decided to abandon the effort. The “Team Todenhöfer” of former CDU politician Jürgen Todenhöfer claims it will be running in three federal states, but does not provide information on whether it has already reached the necessary number of signatures in one of those states.
By January 20, parties not represented in the Bundestag or a state parliament with at least five members must collect a total of approximately 27,000 supporting signatures to be listed on the ballot in every federal state. The quota varies depending on the population of a state, with 2,000 signatures required in the ten most populous federal states and one one-thousandth of the population needed in the rest. Collected signatures must be officially verified.