Bundesrat votes for women´s quota

Sun 28th Oct, 2012

The Bundesrat (second chamber of the German Parliament) passed a proposal by Hamburg´s mayor, Olaf Scholz (SPD) to introduce a women`s quota of 40% in the executive boards of all DAX-companies (the German stock index of the largest 30 companies). Although CDU/CSU and FDP rejected the proposal, two Länder (Saarland and Sachsen-Anhalt) ruled by CDU-SPD coalitions voted for the proposal of the SPD and Green Party.

Experts see this as a first attempt to build to a "great coalition" of CDU/CSU and SPD after next year´s election. Current polls predict that neither CDU/CSU and FDP nor SPD and Green Party will gain a majority in the Bundestag next year. With CDU/CSU clearly ahead of SPD, many experts believe there will be a revival of the first "Merkel-Administration".

The bill must be passed by the Bundestag. Since the coalition rejected the quota, it´s very likely the proposal will not pass the Bundestag.


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