The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came on top in Germany’s snap election Sunday, while the incumbent Social Democrats (SPD) came in third. The right-populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had its best-ever results, becoming the second largest party in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. Since major parties have ruled out political deals with the AfD, the CDU and SPD are likely to form a governing coalition.
The CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party, the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), garnered a combined 28.6 percent of the vote and 208 seats. The CDU’s leader, Friedrich Merz, is set to become the next German chancellor, succeeding Olaf Scholz.
Scholz’s party, the SPD, suffered a 9.3 percent drop in its vote share relative to the 2021 election, winning only 16.4 percent and 120 seats. This is the worst result for the Social Democrats since 1887, when the party was partially banned under Bismarck’s anti-socialist laws.
The AfD doubled its vote share from 2021, earning 20.8 percent of the vote and 152 seats and achieving a second-place finish for the first time.
The AfD performed particularly well in former East Germany, including in Thuringia and Saxony, where it won 38.6 percent and 37.3 percent of the vote respectively. However, the AfD also made gains in parts of former West Germany, coming in first in two constituencies in the region for the first time in the party’s history. The AfD also made a breakthrough in the southern state of Bavaria, winning 19 percent of the vote, more than doubling its share there in 2021.
Germany’s Greens, a part of the outgoing governing coalition, earned 11.6 percent of the vote and 85 seats, down from the 14.7 percent and 118 seats they won last election. The Left party got 8.8 percent, winning 64 seats. The left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, failed to win any seats, earning 4.972 percent of the vote, just below the 5 percent electoral threshold for entry into the Bundestag. The market-liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose departure from the governing coalition triggered the snap election, also fell below the threshold, winning 4.3 percent of the vote.
U.S. President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social congratulating Merz on his victory. Trump ally Elon Musk had supported the AfD during the campaign. Vice President J.D. Vance had met with both Merz and the AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, at the Munich Security conference, but notably did not meet with Scholz.
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