National minorities

National minorities in Germany are:

Danes of German citizenship,
persons of German citizenship belonging to the Sorbian people,
Frisians of German citizenship,
Sinti and Roma of German citizenship.

Among others, the following criteria shall apply:

pursuing of the minorities’ aims and interests,
being historically embedded in the minority,
the majority of executive committee members and the majority of party members have to belong to the minority,
being committed to the folklore of the minority,
having the organisational basis within the minority.

Bundestag elections

Parties representing national minorities do not have to supply supporting signatures for Bundestag elections. The five per cent clause does not apply for these parties.

At Bundestag elections, the Federal Electoral Committee shall establish in its meeting to be held on the 79^th day before the election whether a party has to be recognised as such for the imminent election and whether it may claim the status of a party representing a national minority.

Legal bases

Section 6 (3) sentence 2, Section 27 (1) sentence 4 of the Federal Elections Act (BWG)

European Parliament elections

Regarding European elections, the European Elections Act does not provide for any special regulations relating to parties representing national minorities as there is no need for exceptions. In the direct elections to the European Parliament, the peoples of the member states are minorities themselves. Persons with an ethnic origin from another member state may be represented in the European Parliament by the deputies of that member state (Explanatory Memorandum to the European Elections Act, Bundestag printed paper 8/361, page 13).

Last update: 17 January 2019