German Elections 2021:Here’s What You Need to Know

German Elections 2021: Germans voted on Sunday in parliamentary elections to end Angela Merkel’s 16 years in office. 47 parties from Germany are taking part in the election this year. To win representation in parliament as a group, a party must pass the 5% threshold or should have three directly chosen candidates. The 2021 German federal election took place on 26th September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. The center-left Social Democrats defeated Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc in a parliamentary election. Here’s everything you need to know about the German federal election 2021 and the results.

The 2021 German Federal Election

Voting began on Sunday at 8 AM, around 650,000 volunteers would have posted at 88,000 polling stations in the country to give ballots and also assist with the counting once polls close at 6 PM. After around 16 years at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy, Angela Merkel loses to rivals in the German election of 2021. She will end her position as Germany’s chancellor when the new government is formed following the German federal elections on September 26th.

German Election Results 2021

Scholz said to give a vote to his party, “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good pragmatic government for Germany.” The vote will decide who becomes Germany’s next chancellor when Angela Merkel steps down.

According to preliminary results, the Social Democrats (SPD) emerged as a powerful party with a whopping 25.7% of the vote. As per the preliminary official results published on 27th September, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) earned 25.7% of the vote, defeating Mrs. Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats on 24.1%. The Greens secured third place with 14.8%(118 seats in the Bundestag), by knocking the liberal Free Democrats (11.5%) with 92 seats. The far-right Alternative for Germany secured 10.3%. Hence, SPD became the largest party in the new Bundestag. 

There are 206 seats for the SPD in the federal parliament, also referred to as Bundestag, and a party needs to secure the 162 seats it needs to get a majority.

The process of power-sharing is estimated to take a few weeks or months. Hence, Angela Merkel remains at the country’s helm in a caretaker majority until the process is complete.

The Candidates of German Federal Election 2021

Want to know who all were in the race? We have put together the list of leaders and their respective parties in the German Federal election 2021.

• Armin Laschet- Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU)
• Olaf Scholz-Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
• Annalena Baerbock-Alliance 90/The Greens (GRÜNE)
• Christian Lindner-Free Democratic Party (FDP)
• Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch- The Left – DIE LINKE
• Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupala -Alternative for Germany – AfD