An era of German politics will end with the federal election in 2021.
Here you can find out who is eligible and what else you should know as a voter.
Munich - It's about the successor to Angela Merkel and the possible end of the grand coalition.
The Chancellor has decided that she will not stand for re-election after 16 years in office.
For that reason alone, the 2021 federal election will change politics in Berlin in the long term.
The prospects are not only uncertain for the Union.
The coalition partner SPD has to fear another fall in the favor of the voters, while the Greens will finally become the most important opponent of the Union.
When is the federal election in 2021?
The next federal election will take place
on September 26, 2021
.
As usual, election day is a Sunday on which the polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Federal election 2021: what will be elected?
In a federal election, all eligible voters are called upon to decide on the composition of parliament.
They can cast their votes for the parties and direct candidates, which ultimately determines how many members of a party sit in the Bundestag.
The voters do not decide directly on the next federal government.
The parties in the Bundestag negotiate on a joint majority themselves, from which the next government will emerge.
There is no direct election for a: n Federal Chancellor: in Germany.
Sunday question: What do the polls say before the federal election in 2021?
The “Sunday questions” suggest that the
same parties will move into the Bundestag in the
2021
federal election as they did in 2017
: CDU / CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Die Linke and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen managed to get into parliament.
Although they are all forecast to be safely above the 5 percent hurdle again, the polls indicate a clear shift in the balance of power.
In the nationwide surveys, the Union is right at the front.
The Greens have a chance of second position.
Compared to the last election result, they could receive the largest increase in votes in the 2021 federal election.
So far they are the smallest of six parliamentary groups in the Bundestag.
Institute |
date |
CDU / CSU |
SPD |
AfD |
FDP |
The left |
Green |
Others |
Forsa |
March 17, 2021 |
29 |
16 |
11 |
8th |
8th |
19th |
7th |
INSA |
03/15/2021 |
29.5 |
17th |
11.5 |
10.5 |
8th |
17th |
6.5 |
Bundestag election |
09/24/2017 |
32.9 |
20.5 |
12.6 |
10.7 |
9.2 |
8.9 |
5 |
Bundestag election 2021: who can vote and who can be elected?
All citizens who have reached the age of 18 on election day are entitled to vote in a federal election.
There is also the minimum age for all candidates: inside the election.
It is possible that a citizen may be temporarily deprived of the right to vote, but only as a result of legally defined criminal offenses.
The electoral system of the Bundestag election with first vote and second vote
The candidates can move into the Bundestag in two ways.
Direct candidates compete against each other in each constituency.
Whoever gets the most votes in the constituency has a secure place in the Bundestag.
The other members of parliament must enter the Bundestag via the state lists of the parties.
The first vote is there for the direct candidates.
In the case of federal elections, this is the vote on the left-hand side of the ballot paper.
There is also the second vote that voters cast for a party.
It also decides on the exact distribution of seats in parliament.
If a party wins more direct mandates than it would be entitled to according to the second votes, the overhang mandates come into play in federal elections.
Behind this is a basically simple mechanism.
The other parties receive so many additional MPs until the balance of power corresponds to the second vote result.
Who are the chancellor candidates for the federal election in 2021?
The
SPD
was the
only major party to nominate
its candidate for chancellor before the election year.
Olaf Scholz
is supposed to lead the Social Democrats into the election campaign - and, according to his own claims, maybe even into the Chancellery.
The party leaders had already proposed Olaf Scholz for the candidacy for chancellor in August 2020.
Other parties, however, exercised restraint and postponed the decision.
+
Olaf Scholz is the SPD's candidate for chancellor.
© AFP / HANNIBAL HANSCHKE
The
CDU
was initially blocked by the power struggle for party leadership.
A party congress had to decide on the successor to party chairman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, but the corona pandemic prevented the already planned party congress in 2020. After a long delay, a party congress was ultimately able to promote the new chairman Armin Laschet into office in January 2021.
However, the wait before the federal election in 2021 continued.
The decision for Armin Laschet, Markus Söder (CSU) or possibly a completely different candidate was postponed.
It has not yet fallen to this day.
Even with the
Greens
, who could reach for the Chancellery for the first time, there is still no official decision.
The party traditionally has two chairpersons, which makes the problem more difficult to solve.
Is there a candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock or a candidate for Chancellor Robert Habeck?
The question should be answered before Pentecost - which means that the uncertainty could drag on well into May.
+
Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck negotiate the candidacy for chancellor with the Greens.
© dpa / Hendrik Schmidt
Which coalitions are possible in Berlin?
The Union can hope to lead the next government as the strongest party.
Although the SPD has lost a lot since the previous election, there can even be a black-red majority again.
But there would be a larger majority for black and green as a new type of GroKo.
However, given that the Union is far from its top marks in polls, there are other options.
Mathematically, it seems quite possible that the Greens, together with the SPD and Die Linke, form a coalition “left of the center”.
The involvement of the Left Party would be a novelty in federal politics.
For the Union and the FDP, such a coalition is still a threatening scenario with which their own supporters can be mobilized.
Another alternative is a traffic light coalition made up of the Greens, the SPD and the FDP.
That has never happened before in the federal government either.
According to the election forecasts, the possibilities for three-party alliances are in any case heavily dependent on the exact outcome of the election.
Only the AfD does not appear in these bills.
No party that is likely to move into the Bundestag is seeking a coalition with her.
How strong the AfD performs has a clear influence on all other parties on which government alliances are possible after the federal election.
Which parties will compete?
The parties have until June 21 to register for the 2021 federal election.
The Federal Electoral Committee will decide by July 9th at the latest whether they will all be admitted to the Bundestag election.
The final decision will not be made until the middle of the year.
The Federal Returning Officer declares that parties are allowed to run for the Bundestag election if they have "been represented by at least five MPs without interruption in the German Bundestag or in a Landtag since their last election on the basis of their own nominations".
All other parties may also take part in the election, but must first collect signatures from those entitled to vote.
These support signatures are required in every federal state so that the party can compete there with its state list.
Depending on the size of the federal state, a maximum of 2,000 signatures are required for the 2021 federal election.
When will there be a result in the 2021 federal election?
Punctually at 6 p.m. there is the first forecast of the outcome of elections in Germany.
Of course, this is not yet a real election result, because the same rule applies to the federal election in 2021 as always: the counting of the ballot papers does not start until 6 p.m.
The first forecasts are therefore based exclusively on voter surveys at the polling stations ("exit poll").
As soon as the first results are available, they will be included in the forecasts.
Projections are made that become more and more precise as the counts progress.
Voters can usually count on the preliminary final result on the evening of the election.
The official final result of the federal election will be available a few days later.
Procedure for the Bundestag election: Dates and deadlines for voting notifications and postal votes
All eligible voters must receive their voting notification by 5 September at the latest.
It contains all the information you need to vote.
This includes, among other things, the address of the voting room, which you can only change on separate request.
The voting notification also contains a form that you can use to apply for a voting slip.
This process is usually referred to as a request for a postal vote, even if you do not necessarily have to send the ballot back by post.
You can also tick your voting slip at the electoral office and return it there directly if you want to vote before election Sunday.
The
deadline
for applying for a selection certificate ends on Friday before the election, the
September 24, 2021 at 18 o'clock
.
Only in exceptional cases, for example in the case of sudden illness, is there an extended deadline until 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Is there an Wahl-O-Mat for the federal election in 2021?
This year, too, voters can look forward to an Wahl-O-Mat.
As always, the free online test will be developed by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and will be continued according to the usual concept.
The program shows the user a wide variety of theses on political issues.
The users then give answers that correspond to their personal opinion.
In the end, the Wahl-O-Mat calculates how high the agreement is with the views of the individual parties.
Although the result is not intended to be a concrete election recommendation, the voters do receive assistance in choosing a suitable party for themselves.
The Federal Agency for Civic Education has announced that the Wahl-O-Mat should be available
three to four weeks before the federal election
.
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