Federal elections in Germany will be held today, 23 February. Here is a short vote guide.
Who votes and for what
To go to the polls will be about 59 million people to elect the 630 Bundestag parliamentarians.
Because you vote
The need for the vote arose after, in December, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, lost a vote of parliamentary trust. The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then dissolved the Bundestag and convened new elections. Composed of SPD, liberal and green, the government coalition, led by Scholz, was historically crossed by some internal fibrillations.
What were the central themes of the election campaign
According to the polls, the concerns of German voters first concern illegal immigration and, secondly, the health of the Economy of Germany. Foreign policy issues are placed in third place, with particular reference to the Ukrainian crisis.
How the government coalitions are formed
Germany has a proportional system and the chancellor is elected by the Bundestag. Except for the 1957 elections held in the German Federal Republic, it has never happened that a single party could obtain the absolute majority in Parliament. Coalitions of political forces is therefore used, which, through negotiations, agree to form an executive.
What the polls say
Second Politicalthe CDU is first at 30%. In second place, the AFD is 20%, followed by the SPD at 16%. The green would place quarters at 13%. If these data were confirmed by the polls, it would be a sensational overturning compared to the federal elections of 2021. At the time, the SPD reached 25.7%, the CDU at 24%, while the Greens touched 15%. The AFD stopped at 10%. Finally, the liberal data is interesting: in 2021 they exceeded 11%, while this time they are estimated at just 4%.
What to expect for the future
The leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, excluded alliances with the AFD nationalists. However, if the surveys numbers were to be confirmed, the Christian Democrat candidate would have difficulty forming a truly working coalition. The risk, for him, would be that of an excessively heterogenic executive, such as the one led by the predecessor. It is therefore all to be demonstrated that, in the end, Merz will truly avoid an alliance with an FD that, as we have seen, the polls are giving with the wind to the stern. Moreover, it is likely that such an alliance would meet the favor of the Trump administration.
