Politics: The Basic Law of the German Federal Republic came into effect in May 1949. Major modifications were made in 1956 and 1968. In August 1990, the "Unification Treaty" between the two Germanys made adaptive amendments to certain provisions of the Basic Law, which will apply to all of Germany from October 3. The Basic Law stipulates that Germany is a federal country, and foreign affairs, national defense, currency, customs, aviation, post and telecommunications are under federal jurisdiction. The national political system is a parliamentary system. The Federal President is the head of state. The Parliament consists of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag exercises legislative power, supervises the implementation of laws, elects the federal prime minister, participates in the election of the federal president and supervises the work of the federal government. Bundestag elections are usually held every four years, and the winning party or coalition of parties has the right to form a government. Germany has a two-vote electoral system.
According to the German Election Law, all citizens with German nationality who are over 18 years old have the right to vote, and each voter has two votes. The first vote is used to select the parliamentary candidate for the electorate's constituency, and the person who receives the most votes is elected based on the simple majority principle. The voter's second vote is used to elect a political party. The number of second votes each party receives will determine the proportion of seats it holds in the Bundestag, which is of decisive significance to whether the party can come to power. Members of each party participating in the Bundestag form parliamentary groups. The Bundesrat participates in federal legislation and exerts influence on federal administration to safeguard the interests of the states. According to the proportion of each state's population, each state government appoints 3 to 6 state government members to form the Senate, with a maximum of 69 seats. The speaker is held by the governors of each state in turn, with a term of one year. The president assumes the duties of the president when he is unable to exercise his powers for some reason. The federal government consists of the federal prime minister and several federal ministers, with the federal prime minister as the head of government. The Federal Constitutional Court is the highest judicial institution, mainly responsible for interpreting the Basic Law and supervising the implementation of the Basic Law. It has 16 judges, half of which are selected by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat and appointed by the President for a 12-year term. The President and Vice-President are elected in turn by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. In addition, there are the Federal Court (responsible for civil and criminal cases), the Federal Administrative Court (responsible for general administrative justice cases), the Federal Penal Court (responsible for disciplinary cases of public officials), the Federal Fiscal Court (responsible for fiscal cases), and the Federal Labor Court (responsible for hearing labor cases). cases), the Federal Social Court (which hears social welfare disputes) and the Federal Patent Court (which hears cases on patent issues). Courts at all levels have procuratorial organs, whose task is to prosecute violations and crimes, but they are not under the jurisdiction of the courts, do not interfere with the judicial work of the courts, and do not exercise their powers independently, but are under the leadership of the judicial departments at all levels. The Federal Administrative Court houses the Federal Supreme Prosecutor's Office, which is run by the Federal Prosecutor General and several federal prosecutors. The political parties in Germany include: German Social Democratic Party, Alliance 90/Green Party, Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union, Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Socialist Party, German Communist Party, Communist Party, etc. On May 12, 2005, the German Bundestag voted to adopt the EU Constitutional Treaty.