Exit polls indicate CDU/CSU set to be largest party but success of Alternative für Deutschland likely to complicate formation of a government

Summary

Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU, led by Friedrich Merz, won around 29% of the vote in the snap general election, making Merz the frontrunner to form a ruling coalition.

The far-right AfD surged to 20%, nearly doubling its 2021 result, but remains politically isolated as major parties refuse to cooperate with it.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats suffered their worst result since WWII, while his coalition partners, the Greens and FDP, also lost support.

Merz faces challenges forming a government, addressing economic woes, and countering the AfD’s growing influence.

  • truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
    9·
    11 hours ago

    Bundestag. Only the building is called Reichstag, but we don’t have a Reich anymore. And what matters is the number of seats. Since only parties above 5% make it in, Left parties do not have a majority.

    • LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world
      2·
      11 hours ago

      Didn’t know that, I’ll edit the comment, thanks for the info!

      Edit that I hope I made in time for you to see: does that mean that the parties that are under 5% are waisted votes? So does the percentage of vote total show that the country is majority left leaning but because so many voters voted for parties that didn’t break 5 those voters won’t be represented and the seats that would have gone to leftist parties if they had broken 5 will go to the center left party who did? Basically, is voting for parties who don’t break 5 like Americans voting for Third parties, completely pointless?

      • truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
        4·
        11 hours ago

        Yes, those votes will not be represented in the parliament. It comes from the Weimar republic, which had a lot of small parties and was hard to govern as a result.

        Not sure thrown away is the right word, a new party would never make it into parliament if people didn’t vote for them.