German federal election, 2017

German federal election, 2017

Between 27 August and 22 October 2017

All 598+ seats in the Bundestag 300+ seats needed for a majority   Leader Angela Merkel Sigmar Gabriel Katja Kipping with Bernd Riexinger[1] Party CDU/CSU SPD Left Leader since 10 April 2000 13 November 2009 2 June 2012 Leader's seat Vorpommern-Rügen-Greifswald I Salzgitter–Wolfenbüttel Saxony list (stood in Dresden I) Last election 311 seats, 41.5% 193 seats, 25.7% 64 seats, 8.6%   Leader Cem Özdemir with Simone Peter[2] Christian Lindner Frauke Petry with Jörg Meuthen[3] Party Green FDP AfD Leader since 19 October 2013 7 December 2013 14 April 2013 Leader's seat Baden-Württemberg list (stood in Stuttgart I) No seat (stood in Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis II) No seat Last election 63 seats, 8.4% 0 seats, 4.8% 0 seats, 4.7%

Incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel CDU/CSU

The next German federal elections will elect the members of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, on a date to be determined.

German law requires that the next election should take place on a Sunday between 46–48 months after the assembly's first sitting. Since the current Bundestag first sat on 22 October 2013, the latest date for the next election is 22 October 2017. The earliest date is 27 August 2017, the first Sunday after 22 August 2017. By convention, recent elections have been held in late September, avoiding the school holidays. Elections can be held earlier under certain conditions, such as the government losing a confidence motion.

Background

At the previous federal election, in 2013, the incumbent government—composed of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU, the CDU's Bavarian sister party), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP)—failed to achieve a majority of seats. The FDP failed to get over 5% of the vote, denying the party seats in the Bundestag for the first time in their history. In contrast, the CDU/CSU obtained their best result since 1990, with nearly 42% of the vote and just short of 50% of the seats. The CDU/CSU successfully negotiated with the Social Democrats (SPD) to form a grand coalition for the third time.^[4]

Electoral system

The Bundestag has 598 nominal members, elected for a four-year term. Half, 299 members, are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting, while a further 299 members are allocated from party lists to achieve a proportional distribution in the legislature, conducted according to a form of proportional representation called the Mixed member proportional representation system (MMP). Voters vote once for a constituency representative, and a second time for a party, and the lists are used to make the party balances match the distribution of second votes. Seats are allocated using the Sainte-Laguë method. If a party receives more seats than its vote share entitles it to (overhang seats), additional "compensatory" seats are added to the total of 299 to give other parties a proportional number of seats.^[5]

Voters have two votes, one for the candidate in the single-member constituency and one for the party list in the multi-member constituency.^[5]

Parties and leaders

This is a list of the major parties participating in the election.

Candidates

CDU/CSU

Announced

• Angela Merkel — current party leader and chancellor of Germany^[6]

Potential

• Julia Klöckner — current party leader in Rhineland-Palatinate^[7]
• Ursula von der Leyen — current Defence Minister^[8]
• Wolfgang Schäuble — current Finance Minister and former party leader^[9]
• Horst Seehofer — current party leader and minister-president of Bavaria

Declined

• Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer — current Minister-President of Saarland^[10]

SPD

Announced

• Sigmar Gabriel — current party leader and vice-chancellor of Germany^[11]
• Martin Schulz — current president of European Parliament^[12]

Potential

• Heiko Maas — current party leader in Saarland and Justice Minister^[13]
• Olaf Scholz — current mayor of Hamburg^[14]

Declined

• Hannelore Kraft — current Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia^[11]

The Left

Announced

• Katja Kipping — current party leader
• Bernd Riexinger — current party leader
• Sahra Wagenknecht — current parliamentary party leader
• Dietmar Bartsch — current parliamentary party leader

Greens

Announced

• Cem Özdemir — current party leader^[15]
• Katrin Göring-Eckardt — current parliamentary party leader^[16]
• Anton Hofreiter — current parliamentary party leader^[17]
• Robert Habeck — current Environment Minister of Schleswig-Holstein^[16]

Declined

• Simone Peter — current deputy party leader^[18][19]

FDP

Potential

• Christian Lindner — current party leader^[20][21]

AfD

Announced

• Frauke Petry — current party leader^[22][23]

Potential

• Jorg Meuthen — current party chairman^[24][25]

Opinion polling

References

Elections in Germany
Parliamentary elections	1848 1867 (Feb) 1867 (Aug) 1868 1871 1874 1877 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1898 1903 1907 1912 1919 1920 1924 (May) 1924 (Dec) 1928 1930 1932 (July) 1932 (Nov) 1933 (Mar) 1933 (Nov) 1936 1938 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1983 1987 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013 2017
Presidential elections	1925 1932
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1926 1928 1929 1933 1934 1936 1938
See also elections in Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia East Germany East Prussia Lower Silesia