Overhang seatOverhang seats are constituency seats won in an election under the traditional mixed member proportional (MMP) system (as it originated in Germany), when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of individual constituencies won. The electoral reform in Germany removed the overhang seats, and replaced with Zweitstimmendeckung. Under MMP, a party is entitled to a number of seats based on its share of the total vote.
Leveling seatLeveling seats (tillægsmandat, utjämningsmandat, utjevningsmandater, jöfnunarsæti, Ausgleichsmandat), commonly known also as adjustment seats, are an election mechanism employed for many years by all Nordic countries (except Finland) in elections for their national legislatures. In 2013, Germany also introduced national leveling seats for their national parliament, the Bundestag. The electoral reform in Germany 2023 removed the leveling seats, and replaced with Zweitstimmendeckung.
Olaf ScholzOlaf Scholz (ˈoːlaf ˈʃɔlts; born ) is a German politician who has been serving as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor in the fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021. He was also First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019, and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009. Scholz began his career as a lawyer specialising in labour and employment law.
Bremen (state)Bremen (ˈbʁeːmən), officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen; Free Hansestadt Bremen), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called Land Bremen ("State of Bremen"), although the term is sometimes used in official contexts. The state consists of the city of Bremen and its seaport exclave, Bremerhaven, surrounded by the larger state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. The state of Bremen consists of two non-contiguous territories.
OstpolitikNeue Ostpolitik (German for "new eastern policy"), or Ostpolitik for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) beginning in 1969. Influenced by Egon Bahr, who proposed "change through rapprochement" in a 1963 speech at the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, the policies were implemented beginning with Willy Brandt, fourth Chancellor of the FRG from 1969 to 1974, and winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts to place this policy at the acme of the FRG.
Cabinet of GermanyThe Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (Bundeskabinett or Bundesregierung) is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's organisation as well as the method of its election and appointment as well as the procedure for its dismissal are set down in articles 62 through 69 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz).
