The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a record number of votes in the Bundestag elections this weekend, getting the support of 20.8% of voting Germans. As a result, the party came second in the election, winning 152 seats in parliament, increasing its representation by 69 seats. Party leader Alice Weidel said her party achieved a “historic success” in the elections. 

For the first time in Germany’s post-war history, a far-right party has achieved such a significant result in federal elections. The Alternative for Germany won 10.3% in 2021. Four years later, its support has doubled. The party’s growing popularity indicates an aim to win the 2029 elections. If this trend continues, a far-right party could again be at the helm of Germany a century after the National Socialists came to power.

The right-conservative CDU/CSU bloc led by chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz took first place in the elections. The party got 28.5% of the vote, resulting in 164 seats in the Bundestag, 12 more seats than in the last convocation, where the party scored 24.1%. For a simple majority in the Bundestag, having at least 316 seats is necessary. No party in modern German history has ever won the requisite seats for a simple majority. Therefore, the political forces must negotiate to form a governing coalition.

The other parties in Germany have ruled out cooperation with the AfD through a mechanism called the “brandmauer,” or “firewall.” As leader of the largest party, Merz promised he would not build a coalition government with the far right. At the same time, Alice Weidel said she was ready to work with anyone. Merz will now have to form a coalition with another “party of the centre.” 

The SPD posted its worst result in history, 16.4%. Thus, the ruling party won only 120 seats in the Bundestag, 86 fewer than in the previous convocation. Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the election results “bitter.”

The right-liberal Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) left parliament with 4.3%. The left-wing nationalist party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) narrowly missed the necessary five per cent threshold: according to the country’s election commission’s calculations, the BSW scored 4.972%. According to the Federal Election Commission head, the Union fell just 14,000 votes short of the five percent threshold. The Union 90/Green party, with Robert Habeck as its candidate for chancellor, received only 11.6% of the vote compared to 14.7% in 2021. 

Die Linke made a comeback 

The Left party made an unexpected electoral success, significantly improving its position to 8.8%, nearly doubling its presence in the country’s parliament. Before 2025, polls showed the Left failing to pass the five per cent threshold. However, the party was able to do a Herculean job in just a few months and turn things around in its favour, winning in critical places. Urban youth once considered the Greens’ nuclear constituency, have now switched sides – 25% of 18- to 24-year-olds voted for Die Linke. In addition, the party took the top spot in Berlin, and one of the party’s old-timers, 77-year-old veteran Gregor Gysi, won a direct mandate in the capital.

The Left achieved this success thanks to a skilful strategy developed through the new leadership of 36-year-old politician Heidi Reichinnek, 63-year-old biologist Jan van Aken and 35-year-old journalist Ines Schwerdtner. They focused on social inequality, high rents and food prices. These issues concern 79% of the German population and are especially important for young people, who are hit hardest by the economic crises. Therefore, the party has been active on social networks with videos adapted for young people. As a result, the Left now has more Instagram followers than all other German political parties. 

To show itself as a party that cares about people’s problems, Die Linke adopted the Austrian left benchmark approach of helping citizens on the ground. As part of this strategy, the Left developed an app that monitors rent prices in major cities Mietwucher-App (in some places, this has alread contributed to slight price reductions). They also helped people avoid overpaying for utility bills.

At the same time, controversial issues were excluded from the agenda altogether. Aid to Ukraine, the Palestinian conflict, and other controversial left-wing issues were hardly discussed at public events. The most controversial activists were expelled from the party (or left of their own volition, like Sahra Wagenknecht), and the new leadership was chosen from people who were not involved in disputes or intrigues.

Positioning the party as the last bulwark against the “far-right turn” also helped. While the Greens allowed the formation of a coalition with the CDU and only formally condemned conservative initiatives, the Left established itself as a principled resister and the only alternative to the right-wing bias. As a result, more than a million supporters of the SPD and the Greens chose to move to the left in these elections.

“The Friendly Face of National Socialism”

According to experts interviewed by the Financial Times, Alternative for Germany did not reduce radicalism but, on the contrary, intensified it, unlike the French National Rally of Marine Le Pen, after the successful re-election. Immediately after the announcement of the results, the AfD began accepting open neo-Nazis and far-right extremists into its parliamentary group. 

Dortmund MP Matthias Helferich was admitted to the faction on Tuesday after an intra-party vote. In personal correspondence that leaked online and caused an uproar even in the local Afd branch, he called himself “the friendly face of National Socialism” and called Germans whose parents or more distant ancestors were migrants “beasts” and demanded their deportation.

Dario Seifert, 31, won the single-mandate district where former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was elected. He is a former member of the youth wing of Germany’s scandal-plagued National Democratic Party. The NPD is a neo-Nazi party that emerged in 1964 and has established links with the far-right underground across Europe. The party promoted the ideas of German nationalism and revanchism, demanding the return of territories lost by Germany after World War II. In 2023, the party was renamed Die Heimat (“Homeland”).

The parliamentary group also included associates from the radical group Der Flügel (“The Wing”). In March 2020, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified the group as a threat to the country’s democratic order. Wing members flirted with Nazi rhetoric and demanded restrictions on ethnically distinct German citizens. Under pressure from the public and senior AfD members, the group’s leadership announced it would disband in 2020, but they will now sit in the Bundestag. 

The 48-year-old politician Maximilian Krah has returned to the parliamentary caucus. He was previously the AfD’s chief delegate to the European Parliament but was expelled after claiming that not everyone who served in Adolf Hitler’s SS were criminals.

By doubling its presence in the parliament, AfD will receive millions of euros extra from the budget. In 2023, they already received €11.6 million. It is almost impossible to trace exactly where this money will go.