Five key conclusions of German elections

Friedrich Merz conservatives have won, but Germany’s 2025 elections have thrown some important and fascinating stories that reveal a country in flow.

The alternative for Germany, or AFD, has doubled its support in just four years to 20.8%, and has spread from its support base in the East to become the second largest political force in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the outgoing SPD of Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz had its worst performance in decades, only shared 16.4% of the votes.

There are five key conclusions here.

I looked at a map of electoral results in Germany, and I could almost have traveled to the Cold War in time, when an iron curtain divided the East Communist from the west.

In East it is a strip of AFD Light Blue, apart from pockets like Berlin and half of Leipzig. In the West, the vast majority have become conservative black, especially in Bavaria, where Merz’s conservative sister party, the CSU, dominates the landscape.

But the AFD is also spreading in the West, and political loyalty to the old conventional parties has gone.

Its main message is “remigning”, which defines as deportation of migrants who have committed crimes. But the term can also refer to the mass deportation of migrants and their descendants.

The AFD wants a vote to leave the EU if it cannot reform it, eliminate measures of climate change, build nuclear power plants and repair lines of gas and relationships with Russia.

For one in five Germans it has been normalized. “They are normal people,” said a young man of immigrant origin in Duisburg, a city in the old industrial heart of western Germany.

Although it was second, the AFD can be part of the next government due to a “Firewall”, or Fire wall – Operated by the main feasts of Germany, which do not cooperate with any game seen as an extremist since the end of World War II.

The AFD leader, Alice Weidel, insists that it is a libertarian and conservative movement, not racist. Its great increase in public support has coincided with a series of fatal attacks in the last nine months, all supposedly by immigrants.

The AFD has adopted a highly controversial policy called “remigration”, which defines as deportation of migrants who have committed crimes. But the term can also refer to the mass deportation of migrants and their descendants.

However, in May 2024, a German court rejected an AFD appeal against a ruling that classifies it as an alleged extreme right -wing organization. The judges found that the AFD had “positions that belittle the democratic order and are incompatible with the principle of democracy.”

In three German states in the East, Thuringia, Saxony -anhalt and Saxony, domestic intelligence has designated the AFD as right -wing extremist.

A FD director figure in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been sentenced twice for using a Nazi slogan “all for Germany”, all for Germany. Alice Weidel supporters have sung their name during the electoral campaign, using the phrase “Alicia for Germany”.

Not since 1987 has been as high as 82.5% in a German election, and that was three years before the reunification of the East and West.

Four years ago it was 76.6%.

In a nutshell, more than four out of five of the 59.2 million voters in Germany resulted.

It reflects how energized the Germans have been in this election, which arrives at a crucial moment for their country. There were nine television debates in the final stretch of the campaign, but that reflected the broad interest of the audience.

The three -party government of the outgoing Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz collapsed at the end of last year, and within 24 hours of Sunday’s elections, the three leaders have said they are leaving the first line of politics.

The leader of the economic liberals, the FDP, was the first. Christian Lindner has directed his group for 11 years. But he could not obtain any chosen parliamentarian and Lindner has said that he will leave the policy after 25 years.

It was Lindner’s refusal to compromise the debt rules that first demolished the government, and then sent his party to the desert.

Although Scholz will remain as a chancellor until the next government is formed, he will not participate in coalition conversations and leave the first -line policy.

The Vice Chancellor of the Greens, Robert Habeck, also leaves the first -line policy after his party fell below 12% in the elections.

Until a few weeks ago, the left party seemed convicted when one of its main lights, Sahra Wagenknecht, left and founded its own party, more populist, with eight other parliamentarians.

Wagenknecht’s popularity shot up for a time as head of his BSW party, but finally fell just below the 5% threshold to enter Parliament.

The story was very different for the left (The left), who returned from the dead with an inspired social medial campaign.

Heidi Reichinnek, co -president of Die Linke, went viral after she gave an enthusiasm speech the Firewall against the AFD. It now has 580,000 followers in Tiktok and its publication has attracted seven million visits.

His party assured just under 9% of the votes.

Die Linke’s viral videos helped ensure a quarter of the 18-24 vote, and the AFD was not far behind with 21%, according to ARD TV surveys.

Alice Weidel was the greatest success in social networks during the elections, even bigger than Heidi Reichinnek. She has attracted more than 935,000 followers in Tiktok.

For those over 35, it was the Christian Democrats who won, and more men than women.