German General Election

On the 26th of September 2021, German citizens went to the polls to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag (German Parliament). The center of attention for this election was to elect the future governing political party and the next German Chancellor. After Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed that she would step down from politics altogether, and not seek the fifth term as the chancellor, a new German chancellor had to be chosen after 16 years of Angel Merkel’s chancellorship. As a result, Angela Merkel’s political party the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) chose their new leader in the name of Armin Laschet. However, scandals involving Armin Laschet where he laughed during the flooding disaster back in July, have caused a further decline in the support of CDU/CSU. Following the scandals, the governing political party CSU/CDU alliance experienced a decline from 36% support back in February, to 24% in September. On the other hand, during the relatively same period, the Greens Party experienced 25% support back in May, but the support has declined to 15% following scandals including the mismanagements of bonuses of Greens leader Annalena Baerbock. Following the scandals of Armin Laschet and Annalena Baerbock, the chancellor candidate for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Olaf Scholz rose to fame following the party’s strong surge in support. From relatively consistent support of around 15% to 17% during 2021, SPU saw a surge in support since August, to 26% in September, giving them the largest seat count in the 20th Bundestag. The election results are as follows: 25.7% for SPU 206 seats, 24.1% for CDU/CSU 197 seats, 14.8% for Greens 118 seats, 11.5% for Free Democratic Party (FDP) 92 seats, 10.3% for Alternative for Germany (AfD) 83 seats, 4.9% for Left Party 39 seats, and 1 seat for South Schleswig Voters’ Association. As things stand, the SPU chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz is to be the next German chancellor, however, he first must agree to a coalition with other political parties to form a government.