Political parties

The Political Parties Act contains a statutory definition of the concept. According to that definition, political parties are

• associations of citizens which,
• on a continuing basis or for a longer period of time,
• at the federal level or in any of the Länder,
• wish to influence the development of informed political opinion and
• to participate in representing the people in the German Bundestag or a Land parliament (Landtag),
• as evidenced by their actual overall situation and standing, especially as regards
  • the size and strength of their organization,
  • their membership numbers, and
  • and their visibility in public
  provided that they offer a sufficient guarantee of their sincerity in pursuing that aim.

The following are excluded from party status:

• political associations with the majority of members or of the members of their executive committee being foreigners (parties of foreigners),
• political associations whose registered seat or executive office is located outside the territorial scope of application of the Political Parties Act (extraterritorial parties),
• municipal parties and
• (municipal) association of voters

An association will lose its legal status as a political party

• if it has not participated, with its own nominations of candidates, in either an election to the German Bundestag or a Land parliament election for six years
• if it has not submitted a statement of accounts to the President of the German Bundestag for six years.

See also: “Party ban” in Election Glossary

Political parties have the task to participate in the formation of the political will. They have considerable influence on the political opinions of the citizens. In a mass democracy, political participation will mainly be an involvement in the work of political parties as citizens can hardly influence the political decision-making process on their own. Consequently, political parties have a mediating function between society and its many trends and interests on the one hand and the state on the other, which, as a complex structure, has to act in a uniform way. In this manner they structure the process in which the political will of the people is forming. The Basic Law accounts for this specific function of the parties by defining their tasks and their status.

In parliamentary elections, parties compete for the votes of the electorate. All their activities are geared towards on single goal: participating in elections and being as successful as possible. In the conflict between the attempt to raise their profile and mobilise as many followers as possible, the parties’ achievement in terms of integration is twofold: on the one hand, they reconcile converging interests and opinions within and on the other they participate in public debate and provide options which can be voted on. It is not possible to hold democratic elections without political parties.