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All 630 seats in the Bundestag 316 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A map of Bundestag constituencies to be used at the next election. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Federal elections in Germany will be held on 28 September 2025 to elect the members of the 21st Bundestag.
The Federal Cabinet recommended 28 September as the date of the election, which was approved by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. [1]
The Basic Law and the Federal Election Act provide that federal elections must be held on a Sunday or on a national holiday [lower-alpha 2] no earlier than 46 and no later than 48 months after the first sitting of a Bundestag, unless the Bundestag is dissolved earlier. The 20th and sitting Bundestag held its first sitting on 26 October 2021. [2] Therefore, the next election must take place on a Sunday between 31 August 2025 and 26 October 2025, with 28 September being scheduled.
Federal elections can be held earlier if the president of Germany dissolves the Bundestag and schedules a snap election. They may only do so under two possible scenarios described by the Basic Law.
In both cases, federal elections would have to take place on a Sunday or national holiday no later than 60 days after the dissolution. [3] [4] [lower-alpha 3] Under both scenarios, a snap election is not possible during a state of defence. Federal elections can also be held later, if a state of defence is declared. If a state of defence prohibits a scheduled federal election and prolongs a legislative period, new elections have to take place no later than six months after the end of the state of defence.
After the 2021 German federal election produced a Bundestag with 736 members – which made it the largest freely elected parliament in the world – renewed debate began over the system of awarding overhang and leveling seats in place since the 2013 election. The Scholz cabinet passed a reform law in March 2023 to fix the size of future Bundestags at 630 members. This is achieved by eliminating all overhang and leveling seats, as well as the constituency seat rule (Grundmandatsklausel) which awards full proportional representation to parties winning at least three constituency seats, even if they do not meet the five-percent threshold. Under the new legislation, a party's total number of seats will be determined solely by its share of party-list votes (Zweitstimmendeckung, "second vote coverage"). If a party wins more constituency seats in a state than it is proportionally entitled to in that state, it will only be awarded its entitled number of seats; a number of its constituency winners would be excluded from the Bundestag, in order of those that received the smallest vote shares. Parties representing minority groups are still exempt from the five-percent threshold.
The law was subject to constitutional challenges; the CSU and The Left, both of whom benefited from the previous system at the 2021 election, appealed to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to refuse to sign it, although he did so after personally determining he believed it was constitutional. [5] [6] Immediately after the law was promulgated in the Federal Law Journal on 13 June, both party organizations, as well as the government of Bavaria controlled by the CSU, filed formal complaints to the Federal Constitutional Court. [7] [8] Hearings were held on 23 and 24 April 2024. On 30 July 2024, the court upheld the principle of second vote coverage, but ruled that the five-percent threshold without exceptions was unconstitutional. [9] According to the principle that electoral law should be settled at least one year prior to an election, the court reintroduced the constituency seat rule as an interim measure for the 2025 election. [9]
On 14 March 2024, a law entered into force changing the boundaries of the Bundestag constituencies. As a result of the 2023 electoral reform, the number of constituencies would remain at 299, but with Bavaria gaining one constituency (Memmingen – Unterallgäu), while Saxony-Anhalt consequently lost one constituency (Anhalt). Lübbenau was also moved from Dahme-Spreewald – Teltow-Fläming III to Elbe-Elster – Oberspreewald-Lausitz in order to comply with population requirements. Minor adjustments were made to two Thuringian constituencies to align with new municipal boundaries, while 14 further constituencies were redescribed or renamed, but without changing their boundaries. [10]
The table below lists the parties represented in the 20th Bundestag.
Niels Annen is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He served as Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021 in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Kai Gehring is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a Member of the German Parliament since 2005.
Nadine Schön is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 2009, representing the constituency of St. Wendel.
Jan Metzler is a German politician who represents the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament. Metzler was first elected in the 2013 election, gaining the constituency of Worms, which had previously been held by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) since its creation in 1949.
Frank Steffel is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU).
Andreas Franz Scheuer is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party. From 2018 to 2021, he was Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the Cabinet Merkel IV. From 2013 to 2018, he was Secretary General of the CSU. From 2009 to 2013, he was Parliamentary Secretary of State in the former Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development in the Cabinet Merkel II. He was member of the German Bundestag from 2002 until 2024. In 2016, he was also elected district chairman of CSU Lower Bavaria, an office he held until 2023.
Federal elections were held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, chose not to run again, marking the first time that an incumbent Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany did not seek re-election.
Florian Pronold is a German lawyer and politician of the SPD who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 until 2021. From 11 July 2009 to 20 May 2017, he was state chairman of the SPD Bavaria.
Katja Isabel Leikert is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2013, representing the Hanau electoral district. Within the CDU/CSU Bundestag Group, parliamentary colleagues elected her one of the alliance's eleven Bundestag deputy chairpersons in January 2018.
Thomas Hitschler is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2013.
Bettina Müller is a German nurse, lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse since 2013.
Udo Schiefner is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013.
Markus Grübel is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg since 2002.
Nikolas Löbel is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2017 to 2021. He resigned in March 2021.
Peter Weiß is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 1998 until 2021.
Matthias Zimmer was a German author and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse from 2009, winning a constituency in Frankfurt am Main for three terms until 2021.
Georg Nüßlein is a German politician who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria from 2002 until 2021. From 1987 until 2021, he was a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU). He left the party in the wake of his loss of immunity and allegations of corruption related to the procurement of FFP2 masks ("Maskenaffäre").
This is a list of candidates for the 2021 German federal election.
Fabian Benedikt Meinrad Gramling is a German politician of the CDU who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2021. He was previously a member of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament from 2016 to 2021.