Germany will hold a nationwide snap election on 23 February 2025 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government.
Scholz’s sacking of Finance Minister Christian Linder on 6 November over disagreements surrounding next year’s budget brought an end to the coalition and set the stage for a federal election.
Back in September 2021, Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats, the pro-business FDP, and environmentalist Green party formed the “traffic-light” coalition – named after the red, yellow and green colours of the three parties.
However, Scholz has struggled to maintain popularity amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and the faltering of Germany’s economy.
A snap election was initially expected in mid-march but will now be brought forward following pressure from opposition parties.
The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) currently tops the polls with support of 30 per cent of German voters.
Scholz’s Social Democratic party trails two points behind the right wing-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has the support of 18 per cent of the electorate.
Support for the far-right AfD has grown despite its links to extremism and anti-democratic tendencies.
A University of Edinburgh student spending a year in Germany told The Student:
“I do definitely think that there are a lot of young people subscribing to the ideology of the AfD.”
They noted that disappointment by the coalition’s “lack of impact” is especially present among young people.
“It seems to be young men who are prone to right wing radicalisation and they demonstrate a real distaste for women, people of colour, the queer community and minorities,” they added.
“I know fellow students that witnessed the proliferation of some Neo-Nazi sentiment amongst young people.”
September’s regional elections in the state of Thuringia saw the party win its first state election with a third of the vote.
Björn Höcke – the leader of the party’s far-right faction – secured a seat through the list system after being found guilty in May of knowingly using a Nazi slogan.
Germany’s political system uses a form of proportional representation – meaning political parties frequently need support from others in order to effectively govern.
The CDU has ruled out working with the far-right, making it very unlikely that the AfD will enter government.
“Olaf Scholz – Global Citizen Festival Hamburg 03” by Frank Schwichtenberg is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.