Derec
Contributor
Germany had elections today. They were supposed to have the next elections in the Fall, but last Fall the three party Ampelkoalition (traffic light coalition - consisting of three parties: SPD, FDP and Greens) broke apart, and so the elections were called a few months early.
These are the results:
These results are not final. In particular, the fate of BSW (Bund Sahra Wagenknecht - a splitter party that split off from Die Linke (Left Party)) is up in the air. Under German rules, a party needs 5% (or three directly elected seats) to get into the Bundestag. ARD projections show them at 4.9%, ZDF at 5.0%, and they have no direct seats.
If BSW does not get in, a coalition between Union (CDU + CSU) and SPD would be possible. That is traditionally called Große Koalition (grand coalition) because those used to be two largest parties, kind of like Republicans and Democrats. But now far-right AfD is in second place, so the grand coalition is no longer that grand.
If BSW does manage to get in, Union and SPD will not have enough. In that case, since Union has excluded the Midnight Coalition with AfD, the only alternative is Kenya (Union, SPD and Greens, based on colors on the Kenyan flag). But just like Ampel, it is questionable how stable this three party coalition will be as the parties involved tend to favor quite different policies in most areas.
The far-right AfD is a young party, and it managed to double its vote since 2021. That is because of the utter failure of the mainstream parties to deal with the problem of mass migration.
These are the results:
These results are not final. In particular, the fate of BSW (Bund Sahra Wagenknecht - a splitter party that split off from Die Linke (Left Party)) is up in the air. Under German rules, a party needs 5% (or three directly elected seats) to get into the Bundestag. ARD projections show them at 4.9%, ZDF at 5.0%, and they have no direct seats.
If BSW does not get in, a coalition between Union (CDU + CSU) and SPD would be possible. That is traditionally called Große Koalition (grand coalition) because those used to be two largest parties, kind of like Republicans and Democrats. But now far-right AfD is in second place, so the grand coalition is no longer that grand.
If BSW does manage to get in, Union and SPD will not have enough. In that case, since Union has excluded the Midnight Coalition with AfD, the only alternative is Kenya (Union, SPD and Greens, based on colors on the Kenyan flag). But just like Ampel, it is questionable how stable this three party coalition will be as the parties involved tend to favor quite different policies in most areas.
The far-right AfD is a young party, and it managed to double its vote since 2021. That is because of the utter failure of the mainstream parties to deal with the problem of mass migration.