I'm a simple emigrant, and in Germany today there are elections

I'm explaining in plain terms what this is and how it happens. As an immigrant, of course I don't vote, but I'm not used to living without a choice. But all citizens aged 18 and over can influence who will be in government. Federal elections are normally held every four years, but this year things didn't go as planned—the coalition collapsed (here's more detail), so we have early elections. On election day each voter has two votes. The first vote is for a specific politician who will represent his or her district in the Bundestag. And the second for the party that they prefer overall. Then roughly half of the seats will be filled by those who won in their constituencies, and the remaining seats are allocated according to party lists. The more votes a party gets, the more seats they will win, and thus the easier it will be for them to push through their proposals. But it can also happen that those on the party lists won't have enough seats. There can be a miscalculation, but... where? Let's look at the examples. Example 1. Party XXX has the right to 150 seats in the Bundestag, thanks to the second vote of voters. But 100 politicians from this party have already won in their constituencies. That means only 50 seats remain to be filled on the party lists. Example 2. Now the opposite. Party XXX has the right to 100 seats on the party lists. However 150 politicians from this party have already progressed in their constituencies. What to do? Right – take chairs from the neighboring office and expand the Bundestag! The party gets additional seats beyond the norm, and to avoid offending other parties, their seats are also increased proportionally. And everyone is happy! Well, except for Lusia, who pays out of her own pocket all these additional salaries, offices, and assistants. Therefore the number of seats in the Bundestag is not constant: usually there are 598 seats, but now there are 735, and later they want to limit it to 630. Parties that do not reach 5% do not get seats in the Bundestag at all. Then the Bundestag elects the chancellor; that is, the people’s influence on who becomes chancellor is indirect. The president nominates a candidate, usually someone from the party with the most seats, and the deputies vote. If the candidate receives an absolute majority of votes (50% + 1), they become chancellor; if not, the president again nominates a candidate and a second round begins. And so on forever, until a Chancellor is chosen. Tonight they will announce the results – very interesting to see who will be in charge of running Germany this time. Place your bets! Here's a picture to make it even easier to understand (sarcasm). #useful #Ordnung