In Germany’s recent European elections, the center-right alliance of CDU/CSU emerged victorious, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) coming in second. The official results were confirmed by the national electoral authority after all votes were tallied. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, particularly his Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, suffered significant losses. The SPD secured 13.9% of votes (14 seats), and the Greens dropped to 11.9% (12 seats), compared to their 2019 performance of 20.5%.
The Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), both in opposition at the national level, collectively won 30% of the vote and 29 seats, the same number as the outgoing European Parliament. The Eurosceptic AfD made gains by receiving 15.9% of the vote and adding 15 seats compared to the 2019 elections. The newly formed populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) secured 6.2% of the vote and six seats, while the far-left party The Left plummeted to just 2.7% and three seats.
Germany had a record high voter turnout since reunification, with 64.8% of eligible voters participating in these elections. This was up from a previous record of 65.7% in then-West Germany in 1979 and an increase of 3.4 percentage points from its previous low of 61.4% in 2014. The percentage of invalid votes stood at a low rate of only 0.8%, indicating that most Germans are engaged in their democratic process.
Being one of Europe’s largest countries with around 65 million eligible voters, Germany accounts for approximately one-sixth of all EU citizens – making it a crucial member state for any discussions on EU policy.
Overall, these elections have shown that there is still a strong divide between left-wing and right-wing voters in Germany – with both sides winning significant numbers of seats despite some losses for each side.
