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Germany's election in polls, parties and policy debates

13 January 2025 18:47 (UTC +04:00)

Germany will hold snap elections on Feb. 23 following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, APA reports citing Reuters.

The conservatives have been leading nationwide polls for more than two years and are at 30%, according to the latest survey published by INSA, followed by the AfD at 22%.

Scholz's SPD, with 16%, has dropped to third from the first place it achieved in the 2021 election. It is followed by the Greens on 13% and the BSW on 6%. The FDP and Left party are polling at 4% and 3% respectively.

However, analysts say polls can shift quickly, with voters less loyal to parties than they once were, recalling the 2021 election campaign when the conservatives went from frontrunner to runner-up within a few months.

The conservatives' leader Friedrich Merz, in particular, is considered to be prone to gaffes and quick to anger.

Germany's mainstream parties are all in favour of helping Ukraine fend off Russia's full-scale invasion, while the AfD and BSW want an end to weapons deliveries to Kyiv and a resumption of good relations with Moscow.

However, Scholz and his SPD have recently struck a more cautious tone - emphasising the need for diplomacy and prudence - than the conservatives, Greens and FDP, who are for example all in favour of Germany delivering long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

All of the mainstream parties have expressed scepticism about Trump's demand for European countries to increase spending on defense to 5% of economic output given Germany will already struggle to keep to 2% after its special fund for the military runs out. Habeck, however, has already proposed an increase to 3.5%.

The party that has most embraced the incoming U.S. administration among the German parties is the AfD, which received multiple endorsements from Trump's ally Elon Musk, resulting in his conversation on X with the party's chancellor candidate Alice Weidel.