German Elections 2025: Political Parties Explained.

On the 23rd of February, the people of Germany will head to the ballot box to elect their new representatives of the Bundestag. The collapse of Germany’s three party coalition government prompted Chancellor Olaf Scholz to schedule an early election, but who are the five main parties and where do they currently stand?

The CDU/CSU

The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and their ‘sister party’ the CSU (Christian Social Union) of Bavaria, are popular for their centre-right politics - gaining high popularity from rural voters and voters over the age of 60. However, under the leadership of Angela Merkel, the party did shift to the centre-left in multiple areas.

Currently, the party is committed to reducing corporate taxes and applying tighter restrictions on who can apply for asylum - whilst ensuring their commitment to the right of asylum. In geopolitical terms, they want to ensure that Germany takes a leading role in Europe and global affairs. The party like to see themselves as the natural party of government - having lead for a significant period in post-war Germany.

The most recent polling data has the CDU/CSU as the largest single party at about 31.5% - making it very unlikely that they will not return to office.

The AfD

The AfD or Alternative for Germany is Germany’s newest right-wing party, with their political stance pushing them into ‘far-right’ status by many standards. Broadly speaking the party is ‘Eurosceptic’ being elected in the federal and state governments - including the European Parliament. Since 2015, the party has shifted towards social issues, such as immigration and become overtly nationalist and ‘anti-Islam’ - instead promoting “traditional” German culture and family values, whilst simultaneously rejecting diversity and gender issues. The party also continues to question the belief that climate change is man-made; preferring to see a watering down of many environmental policies.

In the most recent elections, the party has performed significantly better than many of the ‘establishment’ parties like the SPD or FDP - taking voters from all other major parties (apart from the Greens) and have performed surprisingly well with encouraging many traditional non-voters to vote for them. Of recent local elections, the party has performed especially well in Eastern Germany. However, looking at the party’s membership, only 17% are women.

Due to the political stance of the party, no other parties are willing to form a coalition government with them, meaning that despite being the second largest single party at 19.6%, they are unlikely to become a governing party after the election.

The SPD

The SPD or Social Democratic Party is the main centre-left party and the oldest political party of Germany, traditionally being the party of the working-classes and trade unions but pivoting to be seen as ‘social justice reformers’.

The SPD follows many other left of centre parties, by promising to increase the minimum wage and increase the taxes on the rich and wealthy in order to reduce the burden on lower income earners. In recent years, they have shifted rightward on immigration policy - although refuse to deport immigrants and asylum seekers out of EU territory, mainly focusing on harsher and swifter deportations for criminals. The party is also currently advocating for reforms to the government “debt brake” that prevents the government from taking on more debt - critical to their promise of increasing public investment.

The most recent polling places them as the third largest party at 15.9%, although not much further ahead than the Greens - suggesting it is unlikely that the party will return to government, and if they do they will return much weaker.

Die Grüne

The Die Grüne (The Green Party) of Germany has done rather successfully in recent elections compared to their counterparts elsewhere. The party followed their traditional environmentalist roots, relying on their urban strongholds throughout Western Germany for the majority of their votes - building upon the social protests of the 1980s, thus unifying into a political party.

The Greens put their environmental concerns at the heart of their policy - with the party seeking to phase-out traditional combustion engine cars. In terms of their social views, they are significant proponents of LGBT+ rights, and support a “guaranteed income” amidst changes to the pension system and “easing” pressures on low-medium earners.

The party did however overtake the SPD in popularity in mid-2022, have since fallen to the fourth most popular, and are currently polling at 13.4% - meaning the party is seen by many voters as a mainstream party.

The FDP

The FDP or Free Democratic Party is a typically neo-liberal, pro-free market party - typically acting as the “kingmaker” party for both the SPD and the CDU; being in government for a total of 41 - more than any other party.

The party centres itself mainly around 2 key principles; personal freedoms and small government. On climate change, the party would like to promote new technology to boost renewables and increase the ‘digitalisation drive’. Rather unsurprisingly the party are significant advocates for tax cuts and increased privatisation. Aligning with the CDU, the party wants to highlight the benefits of migration, whilst removing the downsides and negatives - for example using the Canadian model for skilled migration.

However, the party has seen a significant drop in support from recent highs of 14% in late 2021, all the way down to 4% in recent polls - putting the party at risk of falling below the 5% minimum threshold to reach in order to be represented in the lower house.

Although there are many other smaller parties and fringe parties, this list makes up the main political parties of Germany, whilst being those most likely to form a government once the election is concluded.

In my personal opinion, the most likely outcome for this election is that the CDU/CSU will return to the Bundestag as the largest single party, and what will follow will be a period of coalition building - and as the largest member, the CDU/CSU would lead the coalition, thus making Freidrich Merz chancellor. In terms of who would likely join that coalition, there is little chance of them joining hands with AfD due to the German ‘firewall’ against coalitions with far-right parties - meaning that the most likely form the coalition would take is a coalition with either Die Grüne or the FDP, as the party appears to want to steer clear of the SDP and it’s years in government.