The European elections in Germany saw a significant victory for the center-right CDU/CSU alliance, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) coming in second. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, particularly his Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, suffered losses. The SPD secured 13.9% of votes (14 seats), while the Greens dropped to 11.9% (12 seats) compared to their 2019 performance of 20.5%. The pro-business FDP won 5.2% of the vote and five seats.
In opposition at the national level, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), 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. A new populist party, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), secured 6.2% of the vote and six seats, while The Left plummeted to just 2.7% and three seats.
Voter turnout in Germany hit a record high since reunification, with an impressive turnout rate of 64.8%. This was up by more than three percentage points from previous years, with a validity rate of just under two percent.
Germany is one of Europe’s most populous countries and accounts for around ninety-six seats in parliament and approximately sixty million eligible voters.
The first post-reunification elections in nineteen ninety-four saw a turnout rate of just over sixty percent, while subsequent elections saw numbers between forty percent and fifty percent.
The highest turnout previously was achieved back in nineteen seventy-nine in then West Germany when almost seventy percent of eligible voters participated in voting.
Overall, these results suggest that political polarization continues to grow within German society as well as across Europe as a whole with increasing numbers turning out to vote but at what cost?
