As of: January 29, 2024, 11:40 a.m
By: Robert Märländer, Tobias Utz
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Press
Split
The date of every federal election follows a system.
However, there are factors that can change this.
Berlin/Munich – In Germany, a new parliament is elected every four years in the federal election.
It will be that time again in 2025, when voters will be called to the polls in September.
The exact election date, in the form of a date, has not yet been determined.
However, the Federal Election Act stipulates that a federal election is only possible on a Sunday or a public holiday.
In other words: There are only a few dates to choose from and there is little scope for decision-making.
Who decides when the date of the federal election is?
According to the Basic Law, strict regulations apply to the appointment of a federal election.
According to Article 39, paragraph 1, the next federal election must always take place 46 to 48 months after the start of the current electoral period.
The Basic Law also defines very high hurdles for the early dissolution of Parliament.
The plenum of the German Bundestag in Berlin.
© Michael Kappeler / dpa
The decision on the election date is ultimately made by the Federal President, who is currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier from the SPD.
As a rule, he follows the recommendations of the federal government.
When are other important dates for the 2025 federal election?
The date results in other important deadlines.
What is particularly relevant for voters is when they will receive their Bundestag election notification and until when they can apply for a postal vote for the Bundestag election.
The following applies: If you have not received notification of the election by the defined date, you should ask the relevant municipality.
The last date for the application is the deadline: This process is usually referred to as an application for a postal vote, but the term is slightly misleading.
You don't have to have the ballot sent to you by mail and you don't have to send it back by mail.
Anyone who shows up at the election office by 6 p.m. at the latest can fill out the ballot paper there - and hand it in again.
Postal votes will also only be counted if the voting letter arrives in the mailbox at the address printed on it by 6 p.m. on the day of the federal election.
Is it possible to postpone the federal election?
The Bundestag Research Service explains that the federal election can only be postponed within a narrow time window.
This is the 46 to 48 months mentioned at the beginning, which the Basic Law provides as leeway.
If the date has already been set, there are very high hurdles to move it forward or back a little.
These would include, for example, “natural disasters, riots, epidemics or large-scale strikes”.
There would have to be a major state of emergency before the 2025 federal election for it to be postponed.
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According to the current legal situation, moving the election day back beyond the time window is actually not possible.
This could only happen in the event of a defense.
The Basic Law considers the case of defense to be a given if “the federal territory is attacked with armed force or there is an imminent threat of such an attack,” as it says in Article 115.
As long as Germany is not confronted with a war on its own territory, the electoral period of four years always applies to the Bundestag.
A final scenario needs to be added: If the Federal Chancellor, currently Olaf Scholz from the SPD, asks the Bundestag a vote of confidence - and cannot get a majority behind him, the Federal President can dissolve Parliament and thus bring about new elections.
It remains to be seen whether this is a realistic scenario before the 2025 federal election
(tu/rm)