Five key assumes from the German elections

Friedrich Merz's conservatives won, but the 2025 elections in 2025 dumped some important and fascinating stories that reveal a country in stream.

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

Meanwhile, the output SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz had its worst performance for decades, sharing only 16.4% of the vote.

Here are five key assumes.

Look at a map of the election results in Germany and you could almost travel back to the Cold War when the Iron Curtain divided the Communist East Germany from the West.

To the east, this is light blue from AFD, in addition to pockets like Berlin and half of Leipzig. To the west, the bigger part of them became conservative black, especially in Bavaria, where the conservative nursing party of Mertz, CSU, dominates the landscape.

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

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

AFD wants an EU departure vote, if it cannot reform it, remove climate change measures, build nuclear power plants and repair gas pipelines and relations with Russia.

For one in five Germans, it normalizes. “They are just normal people,” said a young immigrant man in Duisburg, a city in the old industrial core of West Germany.

Although in second place, AFD is blocked by part of the next government because of a “firewall” – or Fiery wall – operated by the main parties of Germany, who do not cooperate with any party, which has been regarded as an extremist since the end of World War II.

AFD leader Alice Widel insists that it is a libertarian, conservative movement, not racist. Its great increase in public support coincides with a series of deadly attacks in the last nine months, all allegedly from immigrants.

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

However, in May 2024 a German court rejected AFD's appeal against a decision classifying it as a suspected far -right extremist organization. The judges have found that AFD has “positions that neglect democratic order and are incompatible with the principle of democracy.”

In three German states in Eastern – Turingia, Saxony -Anhalt and Saxony – Home Intelligence described AFD as a right extremist.

The leading figure of AFD in Turingia, Bjorn Hoke, has twice been convicted of using the forbidden Nazi slogan “Everything for Germany” – everything for Germany. Alice Widel's supporters chanted her name during the election campaign using the phrase “Alice for Germany”.

Not since 1987, turnout is up to 82.5% in the German elections, and this is three years before the unification of the East and the West.

Four years ago it was 76.6%.

To put it simply, more than four in five of the 59.2 million voters in Germany turned out to be.

This reflects how vigorous Germans were in these elections that came at a main moment for their country. There were nine television debates in the last section of the campaign, but this reflected the broad interest of the audience.

The three -party government of the departure Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed late last year and within 24 hours after the Sunday elections, all three leaders said they were leaving the front line of politics.

The leader of economic liberals, FDP, was the first. Christian Lindner has been leading his party for 11 years. But he failed to choose MPs, and Lindner said he was leaving politics in 25 years.

Lindner's refusal to compromise the rules of the debt, which first overthrew the government and then sent its party to the desert.

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

Green Deputy Cantler Robert Habek also left the front line policy after his party fell below 12% in the election.

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

Wagenknecht's popularity has grown for some time as the head of her BSW party, but eventually fell just below the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

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

Heidi Raichinek, co -chairman of Die Linke, became viral after she had a speech with enthusiasm, protecting the firewall against AFD. She now has 580,000 Tiktok followers and her post has attracted seven million views.

Her party secured just under 9% of the vote.

Die Linke's viral videos helped to provide a quarter of 18-24 votes, and AFD was not lagging 21%, according to ARD TV studies.

Alice Wedel was the biggest hit on social media during the election, even more bigge than Heidi Raychinek. It attracted more than 935,000 Tiktok followers.

For over 35 years, Christian Democrats have won more men than women.