After the governing three party “Traffic Light Coalition” (Red- Social Democrats, Yellow- Free Democratic Party of Germany, and Green- The Green Party) collapsed following a vote of no-confidence , elections that were expected to take place in the fall of this year were advanced to today.
Polling shows the center right CDU/CSU parties leading, followed by the far-right AfD, and center-left SPD (the largest party in the previous coalition).
While the CDU/CSU are expected to lead the next coalition, their leader Friedrich Merz has ruled out including AfD in any governing coalition.
Polls close at 6pm in Germany which is noon eastern in the US. Results can take up to two or three hours to be released.
Projected Seats By Party
Decision Desk HQ will be providing a projection of the number of seats each party will receive once sufficient partial results are available. The projection will continue to update as additional votes are released.
German voters have two votes, one to elect a member of parliament (The Bundestag) from their local constituency (“First Vote”) and one for a party at the state level for purposes of proportional representation (“Second Vote”). The votes do not have to be for the same party.
Following reforms in 2023, winning a constituency vote via the First Vote does not guarantee a seat in the next Bundestag, as only the proportional votes of the Second Vote determines the final make-up of the legislature (more about the German election system and exceptions to this here .)