Germany is a federal state endowed with a two-chamber system: the Federal Diet (Bundestag) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). Elections to the Bundestag will be held on 22 September. For the next legislature, the fifteenth, 598 members of the Bundestag will be elected by direct universal suffrage, on the basis of a proportional electoral system with majority corrective elements; they will remain in office for four years. With a view to avoiding an excessive proliferation of parties in parliament, the so-called “five percent clause” has been in force for years: in other words, to enter parliament a party must obtain at least 5% of the vote. The Bundestag is the supreme legislative organ, responsible for fundamental legislation and for political questions of general importance; it elects the federal President and the federal Chancellor (prime minister), and exercises a role of vigilance over the conduct of the executive. At the end of the ballot, once the results are known, the federal President consults with the parties and proposes a candidate chancellor to the Bundestag; once elected, the latter will then appoint, in turn, the ministers of the government and is responsible to the Bundestag alone. The outgoing government, led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD Social Democratic party) is a “red-green” coalition, i.e. an alliance between Social Democrats and Greens.
