German election results explained in graphics

With a record-breaking voter turnout of 83.5%, the highest since unification in 1990, Germans cast their polls in an early federal election on February 23. The election had been called after the three-way coalition government of Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the neo-liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) collapsed in late 2024.

Votes for parties in the German parliamentary elections

With vote counting finished, preliminary results show the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz and its sister Christian Social Union (CSU) won the election.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is in second place.

Gains and losses for German parties

The big winner of the election in terms of voter gains was the populist AfD, which nearly doubled its votes.

The SPD, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz recorded not only its worst result in a federal election but also its largest loss of votes compared to previous elections. 

How are the seats distributed in Germany's parliament?

When Germans go to the polls, they have two votes: one for a candidate to represent their constituency and the second for a party's state list. The first vote is for a direct candidate running in the respective electoral district and determines half of the parliament's total composition, ensuring each district is represented. The second vote decides the strength of the parties in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag and thereby establishes how many candidates from that state list will be granted seats in the Bundestag.

There are 630 seats in the Bundestag. The number of seats a party has is determined by their vote share. A party must receive at least 5% of votes to enter parliament. However, an exception is granted to parties that field winning candidates in at least three electoral districts: winning three individual mandates lifts the 5% threshold for the respective party. 

Possible coalition options

While the CDU/CSU have won the largest share of votes, they do not have an absolute majority. The party is set to gain 208 seats in the Bundestag. They will need to enter a coalition with another party to secure 316 seats in the Bundestag, the minimum for a majority, and form the next government. The CDU has ruled out a coalition with the AfD, insisting that it is the "firewall" to the far-right. That leaves a two-way grand coalition with the SPD or three-way coalition including the Greens as the most likely options, depending on the final seat distribution. The coalition calculator shows possible coalition outcomes.

Voter migration

Sunday’s election saw voters switching affiliations and moving across the party spectrum. One of the most significant migrations was away from the center-left SPD to the conservative CDU/CSU, which picked up roughly 2 million votes from the Social Democrats. The Left Party benefitted from voter migration from both the SPD and the Greens, adding 560,000 and 700,000 votes respectively.

Election results by age

Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 leaned to the extremes, casting their ballot more often for the far-right AfD and the Left Party. The more traditional parties of SPD and CDU received their lowest voter returns from the younger voters. The Greens, long a favorite for the youth vote, had one of their lowest percentage of votes in this age group. Voters over the age of 60 were more likely to vote SPD and CDU.

How did men and women cast their ballots in the election?

Men tended to vote more conservatively than women, casting their ballots more often for the CDU and the AfD, whereas women tended to vote more for the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party.

The difference in votes according to gender was only a few percentage points, except when it came to voting for the AfD.

The gender gap between men and women voting for the AfD was 7%. The difference between the genders for the other parties was only 2-3%.

Election results according to education level

Voters without a college education were more likely to vote conservative, with the CDU and AfD being their favored parties, followed by the SPD. People with a basic education level were twice as likely to vote AfD as those with higher education. German voters with higher degrees were more than twice as likely to vote for the Greens and the Left Party compared to those with basic education levels.

Regional voting patterns

Nationally, the AfD achieved roughly 20% of the vote. But results differ significantly from region to region. The AfD, which is classified in part as right-wing extremist, is now the strongest force in eastern Germany. In the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the far-right party is clearly in the lead, with many constituencies reporting over 30% of the second vote going to the AfD, while the CDU and SPD trailed far behind. 

In the state of Thuringia, home to Björn Höcke, who was convicted for using banned Nazi slogans, the party received more than 38% of the vote, nearly double the number of votes for the CDU. Berlin is the exception in Germany’s former East, where the Left Party won the most votes in the capital.

The East-West divide is mirrored in the distribution of votes for the CDU and SPD. The CDU together with the CSU received a higher percentage of the vote in the south, west and north. In Bavaria, the CSU won all 47 constituencies.

The SPD had its strongest returns in the north and west, where the party's traditional pro-labor policies still enjoy support. For the first time in an election, the AfD won the majority of the second votes in two constituencies in the western part of the country, Gelsenkirchen and Kaiserslautern. However, in both cities SPD candidates won the majority of the first votes. 

DW is updating this article as election results come in.

Edited by: Michaela Cavanagh and Kate Hairsine