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On September 26, 60.4 million qualified voters in Germany will go to the polling station to elect the 20th Bundestag.
For the first time since the reunification of Germany, the conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be a candidate. She served as the leader of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for 20 years and was in power for 16 years.
During the campaign, the focus was on issues such as climate crisis and carbon emission reduction, response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact, social welfare, digital innovation, and government support for the EU and NATO.
How to solve these problems will depend on the new government, which is expected to be a coalition government. According to RANE, an international security consulting company, public opinion surveys show that the parties are close to each other, and negotiations to form an alliance may take time.
Three political parties lead the polls: the conservative CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), the German Progressive Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the environmentalist Green Party.
Others, including the smaller, pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) and the far-right German Choice Party (AfD), are also running for seats, but are unlikely to reach the 5% threshold required for representation.
Current German Parliament
In 2013, it took nearly three months to form the government. After the 2017 general election, negotiations lasted nearly six months.
The new government is likely to include moderate center-left and center-right parties.
Currently, after rising by more than 9 percentage points in the past eight weeks, SPD leads the CDU/CSU by 4 percentage points in our poll summary.
How does Germany vote?
The German Parliament consists of the Bundestag, which has federal legislative power and is directly elected by the German people, and the Federal Senate (Lander), which represents the states.
Germany implements a two-vote system, where eligible referendums vote twice, first to their representatives and then to a political party. The two votes do not have to be for the same party.
Directly elected candidates account for a total of 299 seats, and the other 299 are allocated based on the representativeness of votes. The minimum requirement to obtain a share of seats is that a party must hold at least 5% of the total votes.
The Bundestag usually has 598 seats, but in order to ensure that the share of seats reflects the proportion of votes obtained by political parties, 111 seats were added in 2017, bringing the total to 709.
The Federal Chancellor is elected by all members of the Bundestag. The prime minister is the head of parliament and government. The President of Germany is a ceremonial office.
Who is voting?
According to the federal election official, there are approximately 2.8 million first-time voters, or 4.6% of the ballot bank.
Who are the main leaders?
There are six main political parties in the Bundestag election.
CDU/CDU led by Armin Laschet
The traditional Catholic conservative group is made up of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. “Alliance”, as it is commonly said, represents low taxes, budget discipline, and conservative liberal values. Members were deeply divided on Merkel’s 2015 open immigration policy, which cost them votes, but now, after 16 years in power, the party is looking for a way to reshape its election success.
The Social Democratic Party led by Olaf Scholz
Germany’s oldest political party and a major center-leftist force. As a junior partner of the conservative alliance with Merkel for 12 of the past 16 years, the SPD has been working hard to establish a clear identity for itself. Its policy focus is on investment and solving inequality issues, and the party has recently adopted more green policies.
The leading duo of Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans pulled the party’s left wing after taking over in 2019, but it’s the centrist The candidacy of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz gave the party a boost in opinion polls.
The Green Party led by Annalena Baerbock
The party was born in the pacifist movement in the 1960s and first played a role in the government in 1998, sharing power with the Prime Minister of the Social Democratic Party Gerhard Schroeder. Under the leadership of Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the Green Party expanded their appeal by enacting clearer social and economic policies, such as reforming strict fiscal rules to allow more public investment. This complements their main concern about climate change, and their goal is to achieve it through faster carbon dioxide price increases and the phasing out of internal combustion engines. It criticizes China and opposes the Beixi No. 2 natural gas pipeline.
FDP led by Christian Lindner
FDP is known as the party of doctors and dentists and is committed to low taxes and deregulation. For the past 70 years, the party has often shared power with conservatives and the Social Democratic Party. The current policy is closer to that of the CDU/CSU. They want to restore binding debt relief and oppose the Eurozone Fiscal Union. In terms of the environment, they prefer to provide incentives through carbon dioxide emissions trading schemes.
Leading Janine Wissler and Sussane Henning-Wellsow on the left
A left-wing party composed of defectors from the Social Democratic Party and the remnants of East German communism has been struggling to win widespread voter support. Policies include substantial tax increases for the rich and rethinking the NATO defense alliance.
AfD led by Joerg Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla
As the anti-euro party established during the most severe period of the Eurozone debt crisis in 2013, it has repeatedly replaced its leadership team and evolved into an anti-immigration group composed of far-right members. The party also presides over climate change and COVID-19 deniers. AfD used the 2015 immigration crisis to become the third largest party in the 2017 general election and the official opposition party to the parliament.
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