The Official Corner Späti Bundestagswahl 2025 Guide
This is the Official Corner Späti Election Guide to the upcoming 2025 German Federal Elections. We live in hell. Eat trash, be free!
Following a collapse of the governing coalition in November 2024, and the eventual ousting of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany will be heading to the polls earlier than expected on February 23, 2025. The primary concerns of most parties going into this election are migration, an issue willed into existence by the furthest right wing corners of the German political sphere, and the issues confronting the weakening German economy and cost of living crisis. While the CDU appears to be in a position to bounce back and claim upwards of 30% of the vote in late February, the concerns regarding the rise and popularity of the right-wing extremist AfD have gained international attention. The current trends in Germany seem to still be that governing with the AfD is verboten, but the rightward shift of the CDU to possibly win back some lost voters from the AfD is not only concerning for the general rightward shit in German politics, but the question of when, not if, the CDU will govern alongside the AfD in regional or a federal coalition in the foreseeable future remains open. This Official Corner Späti Guide to the German federal elections is your own abridged personal handbook to the possibly most disappointing elections in Europe in 2025. Enjoy!
How does the Bundestagswahl (German Federal Elections) function?
Every citizen over the age of 18 in Germany has the right to vote in the upcoming federal parliamentary elections on February 23, 2025. German citizens are given 2 votes, one for a party, and another for a direct candidate. With a minimum of 598 seats up for grabs, the total number of seats in the Bundestag, the German parliament, is then adjusted based on how many direct candidates are elected. For example, if a party wins 100 seats from the second vote, i.e. the party selection, and then has 110 individual candidates elected to the Bundestag through the voter's first vote, the number of seats given to the party is 110 in total. The outgoing parliament had a total of 735 seats in all post calculated results. 41 parties will be participating in the upcoming elections, a full list can be found here, and must either clear a 5% threshold or have a minimum of 3 direct candidates elected into the Bundestag to have their percentage converted into a number of controlling seats in parliament. Parties representing an ethnic minority in Germany are exempt from the 5% rule, the only current member being the danish minority party SSW, who had 1 member of the Bundestag in the previous parliament.
After the seats are given out to the parties and candidates, the parliament will work on forming a governing coalition, normally amongst the largest winners of the election, and voting for the Bundeskanzler_in (Chancellor). The vote for the Chancellor is not done by the voting populace, rather by the Bundestag itself following the formation of a coalition, and then said election will commence.
Note on German parties and the genocide in Gaza
On a simple note for the reader, all parties excluding the BSW in this list support Israel and the fantasy of the nation’s ‘right to exist’. The outgoing government of the SPD, Greens, and FDP has been instrumental in continuing the genocide in Gaza with continuous weapons shipments to a nation knowingly and openly committing genocide, as well as spreading Hasbara lies regarding the situation on the ground in Gaza. The AfD and CDU wish for more support for Israel, the AfD on multiple occasions claiming itself to be the biggest supporter of Israel currently running in this election. Die Linke, while in favor of stopping weapons shipments, have a strict federal party line to combat anti-Semitism through the support of Israel’s right to exist, a foolish, false equivalence and problematic tendency within the German ‘left’. BSW has been the only party listed below that has openly criticized Israel’s brutality. The issue regarding each party’s position towards Israel’s genocide has therefore generally been omitted from this party overview.
CDU/CSU
Chancellor Candidate: Friedrich Merz
2021 results: 24.2%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 31%➖
Overview
Germany’s rightful holder of the Chancellorship have governed Germany for over 49 years of its post-war history, with the occasional interruption here and there. It is possibly easier to view the post-War German Federal Republic as a CDU dictatorship, where the SPD gets the opportunity to govern their best like the CDU before the CDU takes back leadership. Coming off a disappointing 2021 result on the back of the former Minister-President of the North Rhein Westphalia and literal gnome, Armin Laschet, the CDU is in the perfect moment to bounce back and regain their rightful place upon the throne that is the Chancellorship of the most powerful country in the EU.
2021 saw the CDU unable to develop a true identity in their post-Merkel years, but the rightward push in the selection of Friedrich Merz has made a clear signal to the rest of Germany and the competing parties where the CDU stands. Merz’s political career is riddled with numerous racist outbursts in German media, questionable voting behaviors such as voting for the legalization of spousal rape in 1997, classic homophobia, and practically every position or attitude one could easily confuse with the far-right AfD. The selection of Merz, this far right candidate of the CDU, could be seen by some as an attempt by the CDU to reel in some voters who left for the AfD in the last decade, or rather could be seen as an effort to prevent more members from leaving the party and forming splitter groups. The CDU had a small scare when former head of the German security service (Bundesverfassungsschutz) Hans Georg Maaßen, whose career as head of the Verfassungsschutz was plagued by open sympathy for neo-nazi and far-right terror groups to the point Merkel personally removed him, split from the CDU after an unsuccessful attempt to run for a seat in Thuringia in the 2021 elections and forming the Wetre Untion (Values Union) in 2024. Merz’s appointment as lead candidate and party leader has unfortunately shown a general level of satisfaction and stability within the CDU proper, and while maybe not ‘popular’ amongst the general German population, the likelihood of a Merz led government in 2025 is practically guaranteed at this point.
Policies
The CDU is going into 2025 guns blazing against the mishaps of the outgoing SPD led traffic-light coalition alongside the Greens and the FDP. Genuine concerns of a shrinking German economy and a growing cost of living crisis in the former powerhouse of the European economy has emboldened the current opposition party to address all the legitimate problems with the worst possible solutions. A party for the big businesses of the German economy that previously seemed to have an understanding for the necessity of a strong social welfare state in order to ensure high economic output and social satisfaction has been looking for every attempt to cut spending in the social welfare sectors and, of course, cut taxes for big earners and businesses. The proposed tax reform will sink the corporate tax rate to 25%, possibly to combat the fleeing of German industry to the US in response to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has seen many German companies ditch ol’ Deutschland for the US. A complete ousting of the newly imposed ‘Bürgergeld’ system of unemployment will punish those who, in the CDU’s eyes, refuse work and attempts to get more retirees into the German workforce seem to be 2 of the CDU’s most important reforms in their party manifesto this election. Lastly, on the economic side of CDU policies, is the complete refusal to remove Germany’s absolutely moronic ‘Schuldenbremse’ or debt brake, a constitutional regulation preventing any new domestic German debt from exceeding 0.35% of GDP. I.e. Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, prevents itself from spending and investing in anything worthwhile due to a lunatic fringe economic idea that practically every economist on earth, who is not German, thinks is the equivalent of unloading a full magazine into your foot.
A common theme in this year's election will be practically every party claiming to be the toughest on migration. Now while it will be hard to beat the AfD’s naziesque proposals of so-called ‘remigration’, the CDU is surely giving the far-right party a run for their money. A proposed removal of German citizenship for criminals (read foreigners) is something Merz has been hammering about for weeks going into the election season, but the legality and likelihood of reinstating a literal Nazi-era law is probably slim. Nonetheless, the CDU wishes to stop illegal immigration (a fabricated problem in Germany), strengthen border controls, make deportations easier, and the further implementation of payment cards for refugees in Germany. The CDU also wishes to reform the European Union’s migration and asylum policies making the possibility of deporting refugees to third party detention centers easier, potentially modelled after Georgia Meloni’s failed Albania plan in 2024.
SPD
Chancellor Candidate: Olaf Scholz
2021 results: 25.7%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 15%↘️
Overview
Oh oh oh, the SPD what have you become? Seizing the opportunity of a flailing CDU in 2021 the SPD snuck by with a somewhat surprising victory and formed the most useless coalition alongside the flexible Greens and the liberal direhards in the FDP, who later purposely sabotaged the coalition for personal gains. The worker's party of yesteryear has been in permanent neoliberalizition since the Schröder years of the 2000s and doesn’t seem any closer to returning to anything resembling true social democracy, a commonplace amongst all Blairite former center-left parties in the West. In what feels to be a constantly worsening situation in Germany from every front of life, the SPD has had a rather abysmal time governing, to the point of a complete government collapse and a historic failed no-confidence vote in late 2024. Current polling shows a possible historically bad performance on the horizon for the current governing party, who has never received less than 20% of total votes in federal elections. While the SPD botched many post-COVID economic reforms, fell victim to sensationalist warmongering in the expansion of the Bundeswehr, and found their own appointed coalition at times impossible to negotiate with, they did accomplish a pathway to marijuana legalization (which will probably be reversed by the incoming CDU), a questionable reform of the unemployment system (which will also be reversed by the CDU) and a welcomed reform to the German citizenship process which laxed the requirements and allowed for dual-citizenship from non-EU countries (which will, unsurprisingly, also be reversed by the CDU).
Honestly, to my surprise, Olaf Scholz, the most boring serial criminal in Germany and the first Chancellor ever removed in a no-confidence vote, somehow is the lead candidate for this miserable party. A man plagued by the Cum-Ex and Cum Cum financial scandals while serving as Merkel’s vice chancellor and a rather Draconian stint as Mayor of Hamburg, Scholz and the SPD cannot seem to come to the realization that his time in politics is well overdue. Originally speculated that Defense Minister Boris Pistorious, the most well-liked politician in Germany at the moment, would be tapped for the candidacy, Pistorious politely declined the offer and the SPD continuously finds itself in a downward trajectory, oh no make it stop, make it stop!
Policies
The economy is the main focus of the SPD’s election campaign this year. A revitalization of the German economy through attracting investment and what they are calling a ‘Made in Germany Bonus’ in tax cuts for manufacturers who produce in Germany. The forever love in Germany of the Public Private Partnership seems to be the continued plan of action for the SPD, and we all know that stinks. Instead of calling for general state investment into sectors such as housing, and energy sectors, the SPD hammers on in their party manifesto that they wish to make investment into these sectors more attractive and through these methods, tackle Germany’s housing crisis and crippling energy sector which desperately need massive state overhauls. The worker's party of Germany explicitly stating in their party manifesto they are looking to make the economic environment better and more attractive for employers seems almost comical when giving their very flashy election program a read through. They do, however, explicitly call for a federal raise of the minimum wage to 15€ an hour and a tax relief for the ‘95%’, as well as maintaining the nationwide ‘Deutschlandticket’ a COVID policy that created a flat-rate nationwide monthly ticket for the majority of public transportation, a ticket I will personally die for.
The SPD, similarly to their attitudes held post Febuary 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wishes to expand the German military utilizing a ‘freedom isn’t free’ sort of Team America-esque bullshit rhetoric. The SPD led government implemented ‘Veterans Day’ in their final year of governance (and yes they do mean THOSE veterans as well…) and secured 100 billion Euro in special funds for the expansion of the Bundeswehr. A solid continued dedication if not complete compliance to NATO and the US is a policy the SPD is proudly campaigning on in 2025. In terms of migration politic (something not addressed in the party’s flashy online party manifesto but only in the boring print format) the SPD, in seemingly traditional pro-EU fashion, calls to maintain the newly reformed and extremely problematic EU Migration Pact set to take effect in 2026. These EU reforms attempt to create a database of illegalized migrants coming into the European Union and fast track them for asylum, offshore detention in one of the many concentration camps found in Europe’s prison archipelago, or deportation. The wording of the SPD sticking to EU values in its migration policies seems harmless, however, those ‘values’ when further inspected are brutal interment for those seeking refuge. These reforms have been heavily criticized by groups such as Oxfam and Amnesty, and the adherence to brutal migratory politics through the guise of a liberal EU can do attitude, seemingly is no real surprise with the current trajectory of this party. While the SPD is inherently against the formation of third party processing states like the CDU wishes to achieve, the SPD is in favor of deportations of migrants to ‘safe countries of origin’. What Germany classifies as a ‘safe country of origin’ can be found here.
Die Grünen
Chancellor Candidate: Robert Habeck
2021 results: 14.7%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 13%↗️
Overview
Since their impressive 2nd place results in the 2019 European parliamentary elections where they collected 20.5% (+9.8) in popular votes and secured 21 seats in the European Parliament, the German Greens (Grüne/Bündis 90) have cemented themselves as a party that can draw double-digit results consistently, but lacked in governing experience. European Parliament is more or less a den of rejects, and the Greens weren’t really governing there. The last time the party had been in a Federal Government was in Gerhard Schröder’s first and second cabinet, in a rather minor role, but secured the Foreign Ministry as well as a couple of agricultural and climate related posts. Famously, this is the cabinet that supported NATO intervention in the Kosovo war and supported the US invasion of Afghanistan under self-proclaimed pacifist Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. After their stint in the Schröder government, the Greens faded into some level of ideological obscurity conflicted by the somewhat traditional, activist wing of the party and a more green capital wing, in German known as the Fundis (fundamentalists) and the Realos (realpolitik). This debate has somewhat always at the center of the party since the 80s of which direction the party should go into, but the successful campaign in the 2021 federal elections and the opportunity to govern in far larger role in the Scholz cabinet has seen the modern Green party steer strongly towards Atlanticism, becoming far more militaristic in their rhetoric since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and their unfettered support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
With this identity crisis in 2021 the Greens opted for Annalena Baerbock to be their lead candidate, as a signal to the other parties that the Greens would stand strong in their activist roots promoting feminism and environmentalism. The Greens internally debated whether a push towards a more rightward party platform under the candidacy of Robert Habeck and the possibility to govern alongside the CDU, but the general tiredness of Germany after 16 years of Merkel’s CDU seemed to have a more socially conscious wing of the party win out in this debate at the time. Fast-foward to now, Habeck is now our man! Baerbock showed her flexibility in her own support for an open right-ward shift since taking her role as Foreign Minister, notably contradicting her own campaign promises of stopping weapons shipments, allowing German weapons exports to flood into active conflict zones and active genocides as well as reversing Germany’s embargo of Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia. There isn’t much interesting to say about Habeck himself. A man who clearly has had the stress of governance age him more than possibly any other member of the current cabinet. Most notably, he has stated on numerous occasions his support for working with the CDU, a policy position he was in favor of in 2021. If the CDU wishes to govern alongside the party they and their media apparatus have fought so hard to smear these last 3 ½ years will be up to them when they most likely win the elections in February.
Policies
The Greens, oddly for a party who is open to governing with the CDU, are actually quite critical of the religiosity the CDU exhibits towards the backwards policy that is the debt brake and the famous ‘Black Zero’ (Schwarze Null). Similarly to the SPD they call for privileges for investors who wish to invest in the German economy as a possibility to revitalize a seemingly coma ridden German national economy. The Greens will also have you know that if you do your part in helping the climate by say….. oh, I don’t know.. maybe buying a brand-new VW electric vehicle, there will be benefits and premiums in the form of cheaper leasing agreements and purchasing incentives. The Greens want it to be known that you can help the German economy by simply just buying ‘green’ shit. Don’t ask too many questions though about where the materials for your ID4 comes from. To give the Greens some credit, they promise to keep the Germany ticket at a very affordable 49€ a month, aka: the greatest modern policy this government has probably ever passed and probably ever will. The Greens in their manifesto addressed the housing crisis by pushing for an extension of the rent brake as well as the importance of energy independence in sinking energy costs.
The days of the pacifist Greens are clearly gone, and nothing says Green politics like war and security. The Greens have made defense a key factor of their platform this election, with many campaign posters sporting slogans the likes of ‘Peace through Freedom’ alluding obviously to the threat Russia has on European liberalism. The Greens vow to invest well above the 2% to GDP ratio into defense spending, the unofficial norm NATO expects from its member states. Similarly to the SPD, the Greens have invested their positions in migration politics in the direction of the European Union. To be fair, it is one of the few actual forms of governance the EU actually does. With lofty words like ‘Promoting a welcoming culture (Wilkommenskultur)’ a phrase synonymous with the German refugee policies under Merkel, the Greens in their party manifesto stick to their position that Germany is a nation of immigrants, but the reality of their governance seems to contradict these policy positions with Scholz continuously pushing for quicker deportations during his tenure. Regardless of the lofty, activist wording, something the Greens still are quite good at, the reality of these positions will most likely fade away with their unquenchable desire to remain in some form of a government. Don’t count on them being remotely humanitarian.
FDP
Chancellor Candidate: Christian Lindner
2021 results: 11.4%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 4%➖
Overview
Social media these days is filled with egotistical Alpha influencers trying to get you hooked on drop-shipping, crypto, some crank diet or other bullshit to ruin your life. If you’re looking for an egotistical maniac to teach you how to drive your party into complete irrelevance, then look no further than FDP leader Christian Lindner. Coming off the back of a strong youth vote promoted by streamers speculating on Pokemon cards during the pandemic (yes, I am not kidding), the FDP alongside the Greens gained much support from voters between the ages of 18-34. As then no surprise with the most fickle of voting blocs, younger voters, the FDP had much difficulty remaining relevant while sabotaging the coalition they were a part of. In late 2024, with party support hovering around the 5% threshold for entering the Bundestag, Lindner got the boot from Scholz after Lindner could not reach an agreement on the upcoming budget after much obvious sabotage. To no one’s surprise, it had turned out that this dissolution of the governing coalition through Lindner’s and the FDP’s insubordination was a loony, calculated effort to save Germany from socialism or some bullshit these weirdos tell themselves (yes, they actually said that in their secret D-Day memo).
Lindner’s fall from grace has effected pretty much everyone in his party but himself. Still somehow full enough of himself after single-handedly crashing the government, this man whose party will most likely not even make the next government due primarily to his actions, or lack thereof governance, thinks he can take the reins and lead his party. Lindner is a free-market ideologue in a country that doesn’t really have libertarianism, because shockingly, the social welfare state is quite important and well liked for an economic powerhouse like Germany to maintain its economic dominance for so long (and artificially low wages but don’t ask about that). All that being said, after Lindner lost his job as Finance Minister, CDU leader Friedrich Merz said he would be delighted to have Lindner as his Finance Minister in the next government, most likely due to his diligence towards preserving the debt brake.
Policies
It really does me no good to go through the entire FDP manifesto for 2025 and explain the nitty gritty of their policy proposals. Long story short, less state, more market innovation. This party isn’t going to come anywhere close to governance. I personally do not like them nor wish to read through the entire drivel they claim they are going to drive the German economy through hyper-deregulation. The FDP at this moment is running on CDU talking points, and it seems quite clear that voters, and more importantly donors are turning their attention towards the CDU, a party where they will get what they want economically and are openly racist, which should surprise no one that the libertarians of the last decade just became right-wingers.
On the issue of migration, however, the FDP had gone a much more open and stricter route than their previous coalition partners in their party manifesto and their election posters. The FDP sees migration of vital importance to driving the German economy, they however want highly skilled migrants to feel that Germany is an attractive place to settle in, a point that has been a blemish on the German reputation for quite sometime. The FDP wants to accelerate asylum applications, impose stricter controls on who can enter and stay in the country, and wish to expand the role of FRONTEX, the European border patrol. At this point, they are a diet CDU in practically every fashion worth addressing, and their voters seem to clearly understand that as well. I will eat a bucket of dirt if the FDP gets into government.
AfD
Chancellor Candidate: Alice Weidel
2021 results: 10.4%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 21%↗️
Overview
Founded in 2013 in the wake of the Euro crisis, the AfD has seen itself morph from a faceless libertarian entity to a dangerous far-right wing party who will most likely secure more than 20% of the vote in February. Latching onto the PEGIDA movement during the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, the AfD solidified itself as the largest and strangest anti-migrant and Islamophobic party in Germany. Wings of the party itself have been either disbanded by the German state, like the furthest right wing of the party, Die Flügel (the wing), or have been designated as far right extremist organizations, such as their youth wing Junge Alternative (young alternative). Claiming not to be a neo-Nazi party, the party obviously attracts plenty of neo-Nazis into its ranks, most famously Björn Höcke, the former head of die Flügel, known to quote Goebbels in speeches and even wrote for the neo-Nazi NPD party under the name Landolf Ladig before joining the AfD. The AfD is the odd mix of having horrifying policy positions, but are extremely lame in a modern German sense. Party heads like Alice Weidel and Björn Höcke clearly obsess over Hitlerite aesthetics and speech delivery but then drive the culture war debate by yelling about how the woke will not take their schnitzel. In some odd fashion the pathetic low brow nature of modern fascism in Germany encapsulates a cultureless destitute nation quite well, and the AfD is aware of that. The AfD, too, has managed to lie their way into driving the culture and migration debates to the spotlight for these upcoming elections. Not only have they driven the Overton window in Germany further right with help from domestic media, but to no surprise, Stormfront, I mean Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, has allowed for the AfD to get much traction when neo-Nazis are promoted by the site constantly.
Alice Weidel, similarly to her party compatriots in the AfD, has had so many scandals in recent years, it would take far too long to list them all. Weidel is former economist who spent time in the tech and startup sector as well as brief stint at Golmann Sachs before her tenure in the AfD. She is also a former member of the libertarian Friedrich Hayek society, similarly to her party counterpart and grandchild of Hitler’s Finance Minister, Beatrix von Stroch. She is most known for being an openly gay fascist with a Sri Lankan partner, something that truly puzzled many people when she began rising in prominence with in the AfD. Weidel, also, interestingly does not live in Germany, but rather spends most of her time in Switzerland, having a registered address in Germany allowing her to be in German politics though a legal loophole. Most recently, Weidel received international media attention after being invited on a talk with X CEO Elon Musk, promoting historical revisionist ideas that Hitler was a left-wing communist extremist, not right-wing like herself and her ‘libertarian’ minded AfD. What should be of no surprise, as is also common with many members of the AfD, Weidel comes from a linage of high ranking Nazi officials, her Grandfather being a high ranking member of the SS, who was a judge in the Nazi’s military courts. Weidel herself constantly spreads misinformation and far-right conspiracy theories online, has called the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945 a defeat for Germany, and has been at the center of multiple illegal foreign campaign financing scandals since 2018, many of which came from foreign pharmaceutical companies to improve her social media presence through purchasing likes and bots.
Policies
It should be of no surprise that the AfD’s primary focus this election is migration. Calling for strong border controls and mass deportations, high ranking AfD functionaries met alongside other far right starlets in late 2023 in the city of Potsdam for a remigration congress. Remigration seems to be the ultimate goal of the AfD, most recently placing fake deportation tickets in the mailboxes of residents in the city of Karlsruhe who had foreign sounding last names. Remigration is the concept of expatriating someone with a German passport, who also most likely possesses a second citizenship, and deporting them. The AfD also vows to cut all federal money to asylum seekers and make stricter controls for them with the goal being, of course, deportation. On the economic side of things, the AfD looks to lower taxes for German businesses and citizens, and also wishes to completely dismantle the ‘Bürgergeld’ system to push people back into the workforce, claiming unemployment benefits are too attractive, keeping people out of the labor market.
An aspect where the AfD explicitly has also campaigned on, surprisingly in contrast to all other major parties, is so called ‘freedom of speech’. With posters stating things like ‘Finally you can say what you want again!’, the AfD has taken a nonexistent culture war, primarily fueled by US internet culture, and has weaponized it in a country where freedom of speech rightfully does not exist in an American liberal way. A party continuously getting in trouble for the glorification of Nazism and racism obviously wants to dismantle the legal system that doesn’t allow them to do these horrific things, and you too should also benefit from it. It is clearly a fabricated issue to make the average German think there is some real problem with ‘woke culture’ and freedom of speech, where in reality it is simply the AfD is constantly getting in trouble for breaking the law, and they want to change that. Alongside this fight for freedom of speech, the AfD has interestingly grouped together the dismantling of the public broadcasting networks, of whom the AfD claims are quite critical of the AfD’s nazi tendencies and spreading of misinformation. Now if only the public broadcasters would stop inviting them on every single show possible. It should be of no surprise that a party with the far-right pro-capitalist tendencies the AfD holds, that they would be in favor in more power and influence for private media outlets, many of whom drive their political agenda, a phenomenon seen not only in Germany through Axel Springer’s media empire, but in France and the US notably as well.
Die Linke
Chancellor Candidate: Heidi Reichinnick/ Jan van Aken
2021 results: 4.9%
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 3%➖
Overview
Ugh…. Part of me feels like I am wasting my time even mentioning Die Linke this election, because they are not going to make it. Coming off an abysmal performance in the 2021 elections, the party only gained seats due to the minimum of 3 candidates winning their direct mandate. Die Linke’s time in the Bundestag under the ‘Linksfraktion’ was made even worse with a dismantling of their parliamentarian group in late 2023 with the exile of Sahra Wagenknecht and 11 other members joining her in the formation of her new party (see below). Die Linke has also struggled constantly internally the last few years expelling members for pro-Palestine stances, taking a disgusting hard Anti-Deutsch line regarding Israel on the federal level of the party, and the constant normal rigmarole of leftist infighting while being unappealing from all sides. I say this all from a position of love. I wish Die Linke could be an appealing leftist party. They are the only party in my eyes that does understand the basics of social democracy must be restored in Germany, however their pro-Israel bias, complete unwillingness to govern, and their inability to talk to normal working class people makes them unappealing. Die Linke on local levels seem to be a better at organizing and winning support, as seen in Berlin and Thuringia, but their ability to transform that momentum into a federal platform has constantly been a problem for the party. Constantly plagued by their historical connection to the SED, the governing party of East Germany, the party also has much difficulty gaining support in the West of the country and tends to cave into right-wing criticism rather than ignore them.
Die Linke have the tradition of nominating 2 party leaders for their chancellor candidate. This year it’s these two people. Who cares.
Policies
For all my shit-talking, Die Linke has a good party platform in my eyes (if you are surprised all the way down here that I am biased, then sorry to finally disappoint you). Concerning defense and military expenditures, Die Linke wants a dismantling of the German military, the removal of propaganda programs for the military in schools, a decrease in NATO participation, the stoppage of German weapons exports, and the removal of German troops from current overseas deployments. On migration, they want to stop deportation, support the right for refugee in Germany, and create safe asylum routes for asylum seekers.
On the economic side of matters, Die Linke also shines with very pro-worker positions; 15€ minimum wage, 30 hour work week, more funds for vocational education, equal social securities and sick leave for all types of employment, and permanent contracts. As mentioned before, the basics of social democracy are what Die Linke honestly gets very right, these are great policies, I cannot complain here. While the SPD is rolling out the red carpet to capital and business owners, Die Linke is a worker's party first and foremost. Die Linke also wants a hard federal rent cap, the expropriation of mega landlords, an end to real estate speculation, and the end to illegal price hikes on heating and power expenses from landlords and energy companies. Again, can’t complain here, these are great policies. Die Linke just can’t seem to materialize any of this into an appealing, electable platform.
BSW: Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
Chancellor Candidate: Sahra Wagenknecht
Did not exist in 2021
Aggregate polling position as of Jan 17th: 6%↘️
Overview
The newest party of the main contenders, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance) or BSW is an aforementioned split from Die Linke under the leadership of former Linke party chairwoman, Sahra Wagenknecht. Similarly to Lindner but to a lesser extent, Sahra Wagenknecht is a megalomaniac who constantly sees herself as the rightful heiress to some level of political organization. Whether it be her stint as chairwoman of Die Linke, the formation of her immediately irrelevant ‘Aufstehen’ (rise up) movement in 2018, and now the formation of her own party, Wagenknecht has a constant desire to be relevant in the German political landscape. She constantly is featured on talk shows, has written multiple books, and manages to remain consistently relevant due to her ongoing controversial antics. Wagenknecht in the past has mainly been prodded as being racist, authoritarian, and openly pro-Putin by the general media landscape, and while normally I wouldn’t be so quick to agree on these accusations, her track record and her party’s track record does seem to confirm them.
BSW took a clear anti-war stance since their formation in late-2023 early-2024, primarily concerning attitudes towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a stop of German support for the Ukrainian military. Claimed by many to be a Russian asset, another accusation I would normally disregard, the BSW’s primary bank account, Volksbank Pirna, is one that has been used for funneling Russian money into questionable groups in Germany, particularly connected to the AfD, Russian media outlet Lensum (formerly Ruptly) and other right-wing extremist organizations. BSW has also been accused of so-called horseshoe theory politics, for their roots in Die Linke but with far more right-wing attitudes towards migration, promoting stronger border policies and the adoption of deportations to third party states for criminal migrants. BSW, however, has been quite explicit that they are not a socialist party, rather a party of Vernuft (reason). While being seen as a ‘far-left’ political entity, their current roles in local governments alongside the SPD in Brandenburg and the SPD and the CDU in Thuringia begs the question whether BSW is a malleable center-left party with nationalistic tendencies compatible with the primary governing parties, CDU and SPD.
Policies
As mentioned above, BSW’s most notable policy position is their attitude towards migration. Being rather right-wing on the issue, their policy matches many of the party positions proposed by the CDU, particularly regarding the use of third party states as deportation centers, the removal of asylum protections for criminals, and a stop to unregulated illegalized migration. BSW is also incredibly odd is the only party alongside the AfD calling for an end to sanctions against Russia but has also been quite open in their distaste of Trump’s America First rhetoric, calling it catastrophic for European and German economic interests.
BSW also calls for a demilitarization of Germany and, as should be of no surprise, is openly quite anti-NATO. Oddly enough as well, they explicitly call out right-wing extremism and racism, while also spouting a mouthful out about ‘cancel’ and ‘woke’ culture. If the intentions of BSW were to create Germany’s perfect party confirming the idiotic idea that is ‘horseshoe theory’, i.e. if you move so far left you meet the far-right, they may be, foolishly, on to something. While somewhat of an outlier new party, the likelihood BSW will make it into the Bundestag in some form of an opposition party seems to be rather high, currently polling just above the 5% threshold.