Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour of the Green Party has called for Germany to group election dates, citing the system used in the United States. According to the FAZ, the Green politician stated that “a serious debate about how we can achieve this constitutionally and across party lines with the states is long overdue”. He noted that there is immense pressure on the party headquarters concerning the constant electoral cycle.
Nouripour argued that whether local, state, federal, or European elections are taking place, there is always an election. He believes this continuous cycle makes polls extremely potent, often causing responsible parties to act under pressure rather than reflection. “Politics is trapped in an eternal campaign” he added, proposing that elections be distributed over fewer dates. His suggestion involves holding federal and local elections on the same day, similar to how midterms function in the US, alongside all state elections.
In recent weeks, the general secretaries of the CDU and SPD, Carsten Linnemann and Tim Klüssendorf, had publicly supported this idea. Nouripour welcomed their views, urging other politicians to share their opinions on the proposal.
While combining elections would require significant effort, Nouripour stressed that the autonomy of the federal states must be preserved, and the possibility of calling early elections must remain. He concluded that he is supportive of “any other proposal that pulls us out of breathlessness and permanent heightened tension”.
The issue of constant polling also faces criticism, even among opinion researchers, given that around 20 polls are published every month. Matthias Jung from the Research Group Elections in Mannheim commented that there are “weird individuals who cause trouble, which discredits the entire instrument of polling”.
Former SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert, recalling his time in politics, commented to the FAZ that he knows many politicians are frustrated with the proliferation of “Sunday surveys”. He noted that these surveys dictate headlines and obscure the facts, even if the resulting knowledge gain is low, unless an election is imminent. However, Kühnert disagreed with banning polls immediately before elections, stating, “Not everything that annoys you must be banned”. Nouripour also called a ban “out of touch with reality”.
