In brief

Danish-Frisian Schleswig party makes it to Bundestag after 70-year hiatus

Stefan Seidler to take the party’s seat

Stefan Seidler votes in the 2021 election.
Stefan Seidler votes in the 2021 election. Author: Stefan Seidler @ Twitter
The South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW) has made it to the lower house of the German federal parliament, the Bundestag, for the first time since 1949, the last election in which it got a seat. The party has won more than 55,000 votes in the 26 September federal election, which earns it a seat in the 2021-2025 term.

Social liberal SSW is a party based in South Schleswig, a region south to the German-Danish border. It seeks to represent the interests of Danes and Frisians who live there. Being regarded a minority-oriented party, it is exempt from the 5 per cent vote threshold that applies to other parties for parliamentary representation.

The seat will go to Stefan Seidler, who has promised to defend the interests of the north, which he says is underfunded by the federal authorities.

By contrast, the Bavaria Party, or Bayernpartei (conservative pro-independence), has once again been left out of the Bundestag after securing a mere 33,000 votes. This amounts to a setback if compared to the 2017 federal election, when they party obtained 58,000 votes.