Five major takes from German elections

Frederick Merz’s conservatives have won, but Germany’s 2025 election has thrown some important and attractive stories that reveal a country in a flux.

Alternative to Germany, or AFD, has doubled its support in just four years, and has spread from its support base in the past to become the second largest political force in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the SPD of the outgoing Chancellor Olaf Sholaz performed his worst in decades, scoring only 16.4% of the votes.

There are five major takeaairs here.

Look at the map of an election results in Germany, and you could travel back to the Cold War in almost time, when an iron curtain divided Communist East Germany from the West.

Earlier it is a health of AFD Light Blue, in addition to pockets of Berlin and Leapzig. The vast majority in the west have become conservative black, especially in Bavaria where Merz’s orthodox sister party, CSU, dominating the landscape.

But the AFD is also spreading in the west, and political loyalty towards the old mainstream parties has gone.

It has become normal for one of the five Germans. “They are just ordinary people,” said a youth of immigrant origin in Duisburg, a city of the old industrial heart of West Germany.

Even if this second came, AFD has been stopped from being part of the next government due to “firewall” – or Brandmore – run by the main parties of Germany, which do not collaborate with any party seen as extremists since the end of the World War 2.

AFD leader Ellis Videl stressed that it is a liberal, conservative movement, not a racist. Its major growth in public support has occurred with a series of fatal attacks in the last nine months, by all by immigrants.

AFD has adopted a highly controversial policy called “rimigation”, which it defines as migrants who have deported migrants who have committed crimes. But this word can also mention large scale exile of migrants and their descendants.

In May 2024, a German court rejected an AFD appeal against a verdict, classified as a suspected far-flung extremist organization. The judges found that the AFD had “posts that dislike democratic system and are incompatible with the principle of democracy”.

In the east three German states – Thuringia, Saxony -ANALT and Saxony – Domestic intelligence has been named AFD as right -wing extremists.

A major AFD figure in Thuryingia, Buren Hoke, twice convicted for using a banned Nazi slogan “Elis Fur Doussland” – everything for Germany. Alice Vedel supporters chanting her name during the election campaign using the phrase “Alice Fur Doussland” during the election campaign.

Since 1987, the German elections have not voted up to 82.5%, and it was three years before the reunion of East and West.

Four years ago it was 76.6%.

Simply put, more than four out of every five of the 59.2 million voters in Germany.

It reflects how energetic Germans are from this election, which comes in a significant moment for their country. The final stretch of the campaign had nine TV debates, but shows the widespread interest of the audience.

Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Sholaz’s three-sided government separated later last year, and within 24 hours of Sunday’s election, the three leaders said that they are leaving the front line of politics.

Leaders of economic liberals, FDPs were first. Christian Lindner led his party for 11 years. But it failed to choose any MP and Lindner said that he is leaving politics after 25 years.

It was refused to compromise on Lindner’s loan rules that had first brought the government down, and then sent its party into the forest.

Although the scools will remain as Chancellor till the formation of the next government, he will not participate in the coalition talks and leave the frontline politics.

After falling below 12% in the election, Greece’s Vice-Chancellor Robert Habec is also leaving the politics of the frontline.

Until a few weeks ago, the Left party established his own, Dum, one of the Sahara Wagonaccut, one of its major lights, and with eight other MPs, the party established the party.

Wagenknecht’s popularity grew as head of its BSW party for some time, but eventually fell below 5% threshold to enter Parliament.

The story on the left was very different (Die), Who came back from the dead with an inspired social average campaign.

Heidi became viral after delivering a speech against AFD, the co-chairman of the dye Linke, co-chairman, AFD enthusiastically.

Now he has 580,000 followers on Ticketkok and his post has seen seven million times.

His party secured only 9% of the votes.

According to ARD TV surveys, the viral video of Linke helped secure a quarter of 18–24 votes, and the AFD was not far behind 21%.

Alice Waidel was the biggest hit on social media during the election, even bigger than Hyde Rechinkek. He has attracted over 935,000 followers on Tiktok.

For more than 35, it was Christian Democrats who wanted, and were more male than women.