2025 North Rhine-Westphalia local elections

2025 North Rhine-Westphalia local elections

←  2020 14 September 2025 2030 →
All municipal and district council seats in North Rhine-Westphalia
Turnout	56.8% ( 4.9%)
First party Second party Third party   Party CDU SPD AfD Last election 1,213 seats, 34.3% 912 seats, 24.3% 185 seats, 5.0% Seats won 1,205 827 552 Seat change 8 86 366 Popular vote 2,618,138 1,739,246 1,140,055 Percentage 33.3% 22.1% 14.5% Swing 1.0 2.2 9.4   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Greens Left FDP Last election 705 seats, 20.0% 137 seats, 3.8% 198 seats, 5.6% Seats won 466 200 131 Seat change 239 63 66 Popular vote 1,062,436 438,452 289,700 Percentage 13.5% 5.6% 3.7% Swing 6.5 1.8 1.9

Local elections in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia took place on 14 September 2025 to elect district, municipal, and city councils and local boards, as well as mayors in most cities and district administrators in most districts. Runoff elections for mayors and district administrators will be held on 28 September if necessary. ^{[1] [2]} There was no five percent hurdle unlike in federal elections. ^[3]

Voting eligibility

All German and EU citizens aged 16 or over on election day are eligible to vote if they had lived in a municipality for at least sixteen days. ^[1]

Events

During the election a number of Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidates died. Figures in reports vary from at least six ^[4] to seven ^[5] deaths.

Results

The following shows the result of the elections to the district councils and district free cities.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	2,618,138	33.26	1,205	8
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	1,739,246	22.10	827	86
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	1,140,055	14.48	552	366
	Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE)	1,062,436	13.50	466	239
	The Left (DIE LINKE)	438,452	5.57	200	63
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	289,700	3.68	131	66
	Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW)	85,884	1.09	40	New
	Volt Germany (Volt)	86,926	1.10	32	19
	Die PARTEI (Die PARTEI)	58,527	0.74	26	8
	Action Party for Animal Welfare (Tierschutz hier!)	14,243	0.18	6	3
	Free Voters (FW)	8,862	0.11	4	New
	Human Environment Animal Protection Party (Tierschutzpartei)	7,708	0.10	3
	Pirate Party (PIRATEN)	6,330	0.08	3	7
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	2,426	0.03	2	1
	Family Party (FAMILIE)	2,085	0.03	1	1
	Centre Party (ZENTRUM)	1,615	0.02	1
	German Communist Party (DKP)	825	0.01	1	1
	Other parties	13,081	0.17	–	6
	Grouping of electors	293,326	3.73	148	23
	Independents	1,634	0.02	–
Total		7,871,499	100.00	3,648	48
Valid votes		7,871,499	98.99	0.5%
Invalid/blank votes		80,249	1.01	0.5%
Total votes		7,951,748	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		13,998,669	56.80	4.9%
Source: North Rhine-Westphalia - State Returning Officer - Minister of the Interior

Opinion polls

Statewide (2025)

Polling Firm	Polling date	CDU	SPD	GRÜNE	FDP	AfD	LINKE	BSW	Others
2025 election	14 September 2025	33.3	22.1	13.5	3.7	14.5	5.6	1.1	6.2
INSA	21 August 2025	36	23	10	4	15	6	3	3
Forsa	9 July 2025	32	22	14	3	14	6	2	7
2020 election	13 September 2020	34.3	24.3	20	5.6	5	3.8	—	7

References

1. "Kommunalwahlen". Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
2. "NRW-Kommunalwahl 2025 ist am 14. September". WDR (in German). 26 September 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
3. "NRW-Kommunalwahlen 2025: Höhere Wahlbeteiligung, CDU stärkste Kraft". www1.wdr.de (in German). 15 September 2025. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
4. "Germany's far-right AfD suffers series of candidate deaths ahead of local vote". www.bbc.com. 2 September 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
5. "Alternative for Germany candidates' deaths spark conspiracies". euronews. 5 September 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.