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The Germans vote today in an election that is set to give the far -right alternative to Germany (AFD) its highest score and determine the future of Europe’s greatest democracy at a time of acute geopolitical and economic challenges.
Surveys have suggested that the pro-Russian party, anti-immigration co-led by Alice Weidel can win the support of about one in five German voters, double what it achieved in the 2021 federal elections. During the campaign, the AFD received support and support administration Trump and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the owner of X.
The party’s electoral profits would mark a move to the right to the largest eurozone economy, which has fought for the last two years due to high energy prices and competition from cheap Chinese imports.
The first projections of the Bundestag seats will be issued at 18:00 with local time when the polling stations are closed.
The xenophobic campaign of AFD struck a chord after three deadly attacks carried out by migrants. On Friday, police said they had arrested a Syrian refugee for a stabbing attack on the Berlin Holocaust memorial.
All other German parties have ruled out partnership with AFD in a coalition-a so-called Firewall denounced by US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference last week.
But a large right -wing group in the Bundestag is likely to complicate the coalition construction efforts by Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who is the lead to follow Olaf Scholz as Chancellor.
The Merz Conservative Party is expected to win the elections with about 30 percent of the vote, while Scholz is ready to lead his Social Democratic Party of the Center for Return (SPD) to its worst loss since 1887, with 15 percent .
The formation of a coalition can become even more difficult if the smaller parties like the Liberal FDP, the leftist left link and the one -year “conservative left” party founded by Firebrand Sahra Wagenknecht cross the 5 percent threshold to enter the Bundestag.
The other German Chancellor will not only inherit a stinging economy, but also a country disoriented by the hostile rhetoric of Donald Trump to Europe. The US president has shocked his transatlantic allies by threatening to withdraw security guarantees from the continent and conducting talks with Russia about Ukraine’s fate.
“We will win the federal elections and then this current government’s nightmare will finally end,” Merz told supporters at a rally in Munich on Saturday.
“Yes, we have structural problems, but for me the glass is always half full and never completely empty,” he added. “We will turn this half -glass full back into a full glass and show what this economy can achieve.”
German federal elections 2025
Read our guide For parties, policies and voting process in Sunday surveys
Read the most recent analysis and thought In the German elections
