Germany’s highest court has upheld a proposal to downsize its parliament, but overturned a planned change that would disproportionately impact smaller parties. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled the abolition of the so-called basic mandate clause “unlawful”. It came after they received objections from the centre-right Christian Social Union, and the smaller Left Party, who feared the change could cost them their chance to send lawmakers to Berlin. The maintaining of this rule means that parties receiving less than 5% of the vote will still be represented in the Bundestag if th…