Reforms that will cut more than 100 seats from Germany’s Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, after upcoming elections will save around €125 million ($131 million) a year, according to calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW).
The reforms will fix the number of deputies in the Bundestag at 630.
Under previous election law, a varying number of extra seats could be added to make the overall party sizes in the chamber match proportional votes after tallying the results of direct elections in constituencies.
As a result, the Bundestag fluctuated in size after each national vote, and most recently reached a record 736 deputies after the 2021 election.
The IW study noted that any savings from a smaller Bundestag are very small compared to the overall German government budget, and won’t go very far toward addressing pressing problems in the country.
However, the economic think tank contended that the symbolic effect should not be underestimated.
“Politicians are proving that they are also prepared to make cuts to their own budgets,” said IW budget expert Tobias Hentze. “This can be a good omen for the politically challenging next four years.”
The largest factor in the €125 million annual savings is lower costs of parliamentary salaries (€13 million), lower payments to parliamentary groups (€20 million) and fewer aides and staffers for lawmakers (€44 million).
In addition, there are numerous other individual items such as office equipment and travel expenses that further contributed to the estimated savings.