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Germany | Polls close in early federal elections
teleSUR English
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2/23/2025
In Germany, voting progresses in the early general elections. Our special envoy in Germany, Yunus Soner, provides us with the details. teleSUR
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00:00
Let's now go live to Berlin with our special envoy, Yunus Uner, for all the details after
00:06
the polls closed in Germany's early federal elections.
00:09
Hello, Yunus.
00:10
Welcome again to From the South.
00:13
Hello, good afternoon, good evening, actually, from Berlin, capital of the Federal Republic
00:21
of Germany.
00:22
I'm right now in front of the federal headquarter of the Christian Democratic Union.
00:29
The conservative party of Germany, the party of Helmut Kohl or Angela Merkel, which is
00:36
leading the first preliminary results that have been published as of 7.30 local time
00:45
here in Germany.
00:46
According to that, the Christian Democratic Union comes to 28.8 percent, which is an up
00:54
from 4.6 percent by 4.6 percent from the last elections in 2021.
01:02
The second in the results is the far right-wing alternative for Germany, which has until now,
01:11
according to these preliminary results, has achieved 20.2 percent, which is a gain of
01:17
9.8 percent in comparison to the last elections.
01:23
The governing coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Liberals, which has been
01:31
governing the country until December, but which crashed, because, remember, these are
01:36
early elections.
01:37
The normal elections were scheduled for September, but as the coalition collapsed, these were
01:43
organized.
01:46
So the coalition has lost all three members, they have lost a lot of votes.
01:50
The Social Democrats have lost 9.5 percent and achieved 16.2 percent, according to the
01:59
preliminary results that we have now.
02:02
These are official count results.
02:04
The Greens, the second member of the coalition, lost also 2.2 percent and achieved 12.7 percent,
02:14
being the fourth party in the German parliament.
02:18
And the third member of the coalition, the Liberals, they are even at 4.9 percent.
02:25
That is an important detail I'll explain in a minute.
02:29
The fifth force in the German parliament, according to these results, is the left party,
02:36
which has gained 8.5 percent and up of 3.6 percent, according to the last, in comparison
02:44
to the last elections.
02:46
Now, it is clear that none of the parties has gained the majority, so there will be
02:51
a coalition.
02:52
And here comes the crucial thing.
02:54
There is a limit, a threshold of 5 percent here in Germany to enter the parliament.
03:00
You have less than 5 percent, you stay out.
03:03
Liberals have 4.9 percent, 4.9 percent right now, as another party, the Sarawak Alliance,
03:14
which has been established recently, has 4.8 percent.
03:19
So these two parties coming together to 9.7 percent, they are right now out of the parliament.
03:27
That affects the coalition-building efforts.
03:30
If it stays like this, then mathematically a so-called grand coalition between the conservatives
03:38
and the social democrats would be possible.
03:41
The parliament has 613 members, so you need to have 316 members to have a majority.
03:51
If it stays like this, the conservatives have 210 seats, with the social democrats having
03:58
118, the both of them, 228, having majority.
04:05
But if the two smaller parties pass the threshold of 5 percent, then the deputies that the two
04:14
bigger parties gain in the parliament go down, and they won't have enough deputies to build
04:21
a coalition on their own, having to rely on a third partner, which then could be the liberals
04:28
or the Greens.
04:29
Both the social democrats and the conservatives have signed off that they would be open to
04:35
negotiate coalition agreements with these two actors, such as the Greens and the liberals.
04:44
What is clear from these results are the governing coalition has suffered a huge defeat on all
04:53
the lines, first result.
04:55
Second result is the doubling of the votes of the far right in these elections from up
05:04
to 20.2 percent, according to the current results.
05:08
And the third open result is that there will be a certain instability because the coalition
05:16
remains unclear.
05:19
It might be a three-party coalition, which is more prone to unstable political landscape,
05:26
but that remains to be seen.
05:27
We have to wait for that, for the final official results.
05:31
For the time being, some sources even see these two minor parties at 5.0 percent.
05:39
So it is still an open race, and that is the reason why the conservatives here did celebrate
05:47
their lead in the results until now.
05:50
But they are also worried about with whom they will have to make a coalition.
05:56
At that point, everyone has stated that none of the parties is willing to cooperate or
06:02
make a coalition with the extreme right, a thing that, remember, even the U.S. Vice President
06:09
J.D. Vance had proposed in the Munich Security Conference.
06:13
But this is until now rejected by all the parties which consider the alternative for
06:19
Germany as being outside of the democratic system.
06:23
But all eyes are now on the two smaller parties and whether they will pass the 5 percent threshold
06:30
or not.
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