Bürgerschaft of Bremen

The Bremische Bürgerschaft (Parliament of Bremen) is the state diet of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. It currently consists of 83 members from five parties. The current majority is a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance '90/The Greens, supporting Mayor and Senate president Jens Böhrnsen. The delegates of the city of Bremen also form the Stadtbürgerschaft (the local parliament of the city), while Bremerhaven has its own local parliament.

Contents

Current composition

After the elections of May 13, 2007, the composition of the Bürgerschaft is as follows:

Party Seats
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 32
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 23
Alliance '90/The Greens (Die Grünen) 14
The Left (Die Linke) 7
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 5
Factionless 2

Elections are conducted using proportional representation systems in both voting districts Bremen (68 seats) and Bremerhaven (15 seats), with a minimum of 5% vote share per voting district to receive any seats. The 5% rule is used separately, thus allowing the German People's Union to join the Bürgerschaft by winning 5.7% of the votes in Bremerhaven while winning only 2.75% in the whole state of Bremen. The 68 members from Bremen also form the Stadtbürgerschaft (city council for the City of Bremen only) - Stadtbürgerschaft is elected by an extended electorate: the minimum age for voting is 16 instead of 18 and all citizens of the European Union are allowed to vote. These additional votes created a green Stadtbürgerschaft-only member and a SPD non-Stadtbürgerschaft member from Bremen(City) after the 2003 elections.

In 1979, the Bremer Grüne Liste managed to join the Bürgerschaft, thus being the first Green Party to ever enter a German Landtag.

Originally, Siegfried Tittmann was voted into the Bürgerschaft on the ticket of the right-wing German People's Union (DVU). He left the party in July 2007 and did not join another party since then, thus being factionless.

Presidents of the Bürgerschaft

So far, the presidents of the Landtag of Bremen have been:

See also

External links