A parliamentary group (German: Gruppe) in Germany is an association of several members of a parliament, especially in the Bundestag, whose number does not reach the minimum size of a fraktion.
A group can be formed, for example, by members of a party who enter parliament on the basis of a basic mandate clause without passing the five percent hurdle [de].
After the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (BHE) was founded in October 1950, five representatives formed the BHE/DG group.
Four of the BHE members came from the Economic Reconstruction Association (WAV) fraktion, which lost its faction status and also acted as a group until December 1951.
At the beginning of the 5th Bundestag, the minimum size of a parliamentary group was set at five percent of the MPs.
The 24 representatives from the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) who were members of the 11th German Bundestag after reunification on October 3, 1989, formed a group.
Both parties had only overcome the barrier clause in the eastern electoral district, a special rule for the first election after reunification.
[4] The ten members of the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, who had previously left the Die Linke, were also recognised as a group on 2 February 2024.
After losing the special fraktion status it had acquired after the 2019 Brandenburg state election in November 2023, the BVB/FW reconstituted itself as a group in December 2023.
[7] In the Bürgerschaft of Bremen, after the defection of an SPD representative, a two-member group of Citizens in Rage (BIW) existed from October 2013 to June 2015.
In the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein, the South Schleswig Voters' Association which represents the Danish minority in Germany, has had the rights of a parliamentary group since 1955.
In the Italian Parliament, MPs and senators who do not belong to a political group are gathered in the Gruppo Misto .