Germans are referring to polling stations in critical elections with the expected end right gains
The German parliament consists of the last regular session before the general elections.
Michael Kappeler | Image of the Alliance | Getty Images
On Sunday, the Germans headed to the polls to vote in the 2025 federal election, which only guaranteed to result in a new chancellor taken from Olaf Scholz to run the largest European economy.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its branch Christian Social Union (CSU) surveyed in the lead in the election, which he put his head candidate Merz in order for office.
The end of the right -wing alternative Fuer Deutschland (AFD) is expected to be in the second place in front of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Green, which were also part of the latest ruling coalition that collapsed late last year.
This indicates a shift from 2021 The election, when SPD came out on top and followed by a CDU/CSU. AFD finished fourth at the time.
The Germans will give two votes to the polls, one who will directly select a member of the parliament that will represent their constituency and one for the party list. Another voice will determine the proportion of the German parliament, the Bundestag, with the parties who sent their candidates to Berlin to ensure representation.
There is also a threshold of 5% that the parties need to fulfill to implement delegates to the Bundestag. Several smaller parties, including the left, free democratic party (FDP) and Bünddnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), have long surveyed around this mark, and the left has been picked up in recent days.
Coalition building
Attention will be switched to the process of construction of the coalition after voting. It is rare for the German Party to get an absolute majority, and depending on which group provides the largest number of places in parliament, usually still has to find partners for management to ensure the ruling majority.
This procedure may take weeks or even months – parties have extensive negotiations before then abolishing an agreement on the coalition with details of their common positions and plans.
“The latest polls indicate that conservatives (CDU/CSU) will get the biggest proportion of votes, but they will need one or two (unlikely) coalition partners, probably SPD and/or Green,” analysts analysts Deutsche Bank in the note said in a note earlier this week.
All the main parties said they would not enter the coalition with the end right AFD. The result of the party will still be carefully observed because of its growth growth, despite a series of controversy and investigation of its behavior, which also launched across the country protests.
Smaller parties will also focus on this election – their entry into Parliament could influence whether the third coalition partner is needed to form a majority government. They could also be key if the new government wants to make any changes in the Constitution, for which the support of two -thirds of the majority is needed that smaller parties could effectively block from the event.
Early elections
The elections take place a few months earlier than they were originally planned due to the breakup of the so-called traffic light coalition consisted of Scholz ‘SPD, Green Parties and FDP in November. The Alliance has been in power since he took over his long -standing chancellor Angela Merkel in 2021.
The months of political distraction and disagreement within the coalition on economic, fiscal and budget policy ultimately led to the ruin of the Government, as Scholz fired Former Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
Then the steps were taken to start strong choices – which only happened three times in the history of Germany. Scholz first had to ask for voting about confidence in himself in the country parliament, before proposing the latter dissolution German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The head of the state then dissolved the lower house of Parliament, setting the election date on Sunday.
