Germany also has a number of other parties, in recent history most importantly the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left, and more recently the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013. The federal government of Germany often consisted of a coalition of a major and a minor party, specifically CDU/CSU and FDP or SPD and FDP, and from 1998 to 2005 SPD and Greens. From 1966 to 1969, from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2021, the federal government consisted of a coalition of the two major parties, called a grand coalition.[1]
Coalitions in the Bundestag and state legislatures are often described by party colors. Party colors are red for the Social Democratic Party, green for Alliance 90/The Greens, yellow for the Free Democratic Party, purple (officially red, which is customarily used for the SPD) for the Left, light blue for the AfD, and black and blue for the CDU and CSU respectively.[2][3]
Current parties
Party membership in Germany (since 1945; East German parties joined in 1990)
↑ BSW is widely considered far-left, but it was also described as left-wing or left-conservative; the latter label is because some stances of the party on cultural issues are seen as conservative.
The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.
Germany is a democratic and federal parliamentary republic, where federal legislative power is vested in the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
Alliance 90/The Greens, often simply referred to as Greens, is a centre-left green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens and Alliance 90. The Greens had itself merged with the East German Green Party after German reunification in 1990.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Germany since 1 October 2017. A bill for the legalisation of same-sex marriage passed the Bundestag on 30 June 2017 and the Bundesrat on 7 July. It was signed into law on 20 July by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and published in the Federal Law Gazette on 28 July 2017. Previously, the governing CDU/CSU had refused to legislate on the issue of same-sex marriage. In June 2017, Chancellor Angela Merkel unexpectedly said she hoped the matter would be put to a conscience vote. Consequently, other party leaders organised for a vote to be held in the last week of June during the final legislative session before summer recess. The Bundestag passed the legislation on 30 June by 393 votes to 226, and it went into force on 1 October. Polling suggests that a significant majority of Germans support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Germany was the first country in Central Europe, the fourteenth in Europe, and the 22nd in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.
Federal elections were held in Germany on 16 October 1994 to elect the members of the 13th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor in a narrowly re-elected coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). This elected Bundestag was the largest in history until 2017, numbering 672 members.
Federal elections were held in Germany on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th Bundestag. The snap election was called after the government's defeat in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, which caused them to intentionally lose a motion of confidence to trigger an early federal election. The outgoing government was a coalition of the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens, led by federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The election was originally intended for the autumn of 2006.
Federal elections were held in Germany on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag.
The Left, commonly referred to as the Left Party, is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Through the PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of former East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Since October 2024, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken. The party holds 28 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag, the federal legislature of Germany, having won 4.9% of votes cast in the 2021 German federal election. Its parliamentary group is the second-smallest of seven in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann.
Federal elections were held on 22 September to elect the members of the 18th Bundestag of Germany. At stake were all 598 seats to the Bundestag, plus 33 overhang seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CDU/CSU) of incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel won their best result since 1990 with nearly 42% of the vote and nearly 50% of the seats, just five short for an overall majority. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) failed to meet the 5% vote electoral threshold in what was their worst showing ever in a federal election, denying them seats in the Bundestag for the first time in their history.
Grand coalition is a nickname in German politics describing a governing coalition of the parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) along with its sister party the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), since they have historically been the major parties in most state and federal elections since 1949. The meaning of the term may change due to the growth of some formerly minor parties in recent years.
Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter.
The 2014 Saxony state election was held on 31 August 2014 to elect the members of the 6th Landtag of Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Stanislaw Tillich was defeated as the FDP lost all its seats. The CDU subsequently formed a grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Tillich was re-elected as Minister-President.
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.
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 13 February 2022 to elect the next president of Germany.
Michael Kretschmer is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister President of Saxony since December 2017. Since 2022, he has been one of four deputy chairs of the CDU, under the leadership of chairman Friedrich Merz.
The SPD party member vote on the 2018 coalition agreement of Germany took place from 20 February to 2 March 2018. The membership of the center-left SPD decided via postal vote whether to accept a coalition agreement with Germany's center-right CDU and CSU. The result, 66.02% in favor of the Yes campaign, was published on 4 March 2018. It was decisive for Angela Merkel's plan to get re-elected as chancellor of Germany on 14 March in the German Bundestag.
The 2021 Berlin state election, ruled invalid in 2022 and repeated in 2023, was held on 26 September 2021, on the same day as the 2021 German federal election, which also had to be repeated in parts of Berlin due to irregularities. Thus, the 19th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin was elected twice.
A federal election will be held in Germany on 23 February 2025 to elect the 630 members of the 21st Bundestag. Originally scheduled for 28 September 2025, the elections were brought forward due to the collapse of the governing coalition during the 2024 German government crisis. It is the fourth snap election in the history of post-war Germany after those in 1972, 1983 and 2005.
In Germany's federal electoral system, a single party or parliamentary group rarely wins an absolute majority of seats in the Bundestag, and thus coalition governments, rather than single-party governments, are the usually expected outcome of a German election. As German political parties are often associated with particular colors, coalitions are frequently given nicknames based on the colors included. Prominent political parties in Germany are the CDU/CSU (black), the SPD (red), the Greens (green), the Left, the AfD (blue), and the FDP (yellow).
On 6 November 2024, Olaf Scholz, the incumbent chancellor of Germany, announced the dismissal of Christian Lindner, the then-finance minister and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), from his cabinet. This occurred following recent disputes in the three-party coalition government over the country's economic policies and ongoing tensions within the coalition. Lindner's dismissal caused the collapse of the coalition, as the FDP moved into the opposition, leaving a two-party minority government of SPD and The Greens.
↑ Janz, Carsten; Wienand, Lars (19 September 2024). "Die wahre Herkunft der Wagenknecht-Millionen". T-Online (in German). Stanger wie Salingré gehören inzwischen zu den 900 Mitgliedern der Partei, die bei Neuaufnahmen sehr zögerlich agieren.[Stanger and Salingré are now among the party's 900 members who are very hesitant about new admissions.]
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