Closing summary
Thanks for joining our live coverage of the German election – we’re closing now but we’ll be back soon to bring you all the latest news. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the key developments:
The final results confirmed Friedrich Merz and his CDU/CSU alliance on 28.5%, the AfD in second place on 20.8% – its best result ever – the SPD slumping by 10 percentage points to 16.4% and the Greens to 11.6%. The Left has surged to 8.8% and the liberal FDP – which triggered the early election by collapsing Olaf Scholz’s coalition – along with the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance failed to meet the 5% threshold required top get into parliament.
The results mean Merz could form a so-called “grand coalition” with the SPD, without needing to find a third party. That would mean a future government would be more stable and less fractious than for example Scholz’s.
The Social Democratic party was left reeling on the back of a historically low vote share, with outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, admitting it was a “bitter result”.He said he would not be involved in any coalition talks with the CDU/CSU, with other SPD leaders expected to lead.
Merz hailed “a historic election evening,” and acknowledged the responsibility and the scale of the task ahead. He said he planned to form a coalition by Easter and told party faithful that “the world out there is not waiting for us and for lengthy negotiations.”
Speaking on a post-election panel of party leaders Merz also acknowledged the foreign policy challenges ahead. “After Donald Trump’s statements last week, it’s clear: this American government doesn’t care for Europe,” he said. “We need to see whether we don’t need to become more quickly independent in Europe in terms of our defence capabilities,” he added.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) called the result “historic” for her party, having doubled the number of votes from 2021. Weidel said her party remained open to coalition talks with other parties, and said excluding the AfD was the equivalent to “voter fraud”.
The AfD swept all five former East German states: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. It won well over 30% of the vote in each state and as much as 38.6% in Thuringia – that’s where the AfD made history in September as the first far-right party to win a state election since the second world war.
Christian Lindner, the leader of the liberal FDP whose falling out with Scholz triggered the collapse of his coalition government and paved the way for early elections, resigned after his party failed to reach the 5% threshold to re-enter parliament. In a post on X, he said would retire from active politics and said he hoped the election would bring a “new start for Germany”.
Updated
Berlin-based journalist Thomas Vorreyer points out that had the vote been based only on those aged between 35 and 44 the AfD would have come out top. 26% of people in that age category voted for the far right party, with the CDU/CSU in second place on 24%.
Bei Menschen, die 35 bis 44 Jahre alt sind, kommt die AfD auf 26 Prozent, wäre stärkste Kraft. Also bei jenen, die mitten im Leben stehen, Ausbildung lange fertig, Rente (Welche?) aber noch weit, weit weg. #Bundestagswahl2025 pic.twitter.com/JSDbk7HRHp
— Thomas Vorreyer (@tvorreyer) February 23, 2025
