Federal election 2021: what is the opposition?

The 2021 federal election is over - the tension remains.

Who will be the new opposition?

An overview of the results can be found here.

Berlin - This year's general election was more exciting than seldom before: Not only because - unlike usual - three candidates fought for entry into the Chancellery, but also because the poll results this year in the run-up to the election repeatedly caused great surprises: The CDU's candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, was already struggling with values ​​that were unusually bad for his party weeks before the election, while fellow competitor Olaf Scholz of the SPD held on to the top until shortly before the election.

(Election data, live ticker, background coverage - all information about the federal election 2021 can be found in our politics newsletter.)

This year's election campaign in particular was tight - until the very end it was impossible to predict which parties would form a coalition and which would go into opposition.

However, one thing was clear from the start of the election campaign: no party will be able to provide sole government.

The importance of the opposition in the Bundestag

Shortly after the general election, the coalition negotiations begin, the outcome of which will determine the political direction and future of Germany.

With the new coalition, the parliamentary groups and the opposition in the Bundestag will also be reorganized - the latter being of great democratic relevance.

The political opposition offers the counterpart to the current ruling party. This consists of the other parties that do not form a government coalition and thus form the democratic alternative to government. The term opposition (lat. “Oppositio”: opposing) comes from the 16th century and goes back to British parliamentarism: In the 18th century the House of Representatives there consisted of the parliamentarians who were tied to the government and the same opposition , who expressed opinions critical of the government, together.

In Germany, the opposition has only had a high priority since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded.

Until a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1952, the deputies who were not involved in the government had no function.

Today the principle applies: Due to the critical distance between the opposition parties and the government, they are particularly suitable for exercising control.

Election results of the 2017 and 2021 Bundestag elections: which parties are going into the opposition?

The coalition negotiations are not yet over, but the new election results already suggest possible coalition partners and thus also the opposition.

The last and current results of the Bundestag election at a glance:

Parties	Results 2017 in%	Results 2021 in%
CDU / CSU	32.9
SPD	20.5
AfD	12.6
FDP	10.7
The left	9.2
Alliance 90 / The Greens	8.9
Others	5.0

All results from the 46 Bavarian constituencies can be found here.

Bundestag election 2017: who was in the opposition and coalition?

AfD and Die Linke already formed part of the opposition in the last legislative period, while the AfD was the largest parliamentary party.

These parties formed the coalition, opposition and leading parliamentary group after the 2017 federal election:

• Coalition parties: Grand coalition of CDU / CSU and SPD

• Opposition: formed all parties apart from the coalition parties

• Leading parliamentary group: AfD

Federal election 2021: who forms the opposition and coalition?

These parties form the coalition, opposition and leading parliamentary group after this year's general election:

• Coalition parties: still open

• Opposition: still open

• Leading parliamentary group: still open

• Chair of the parliamentary group: still open

On

Merkur.de you

get an overview of all the results of the constituencies and communities on our interactive map.

(klb)