Despite severe losses the two Christian democratic parties attained important strategic goals. They remained as the strongest political forces in Germany. There is no winning coalition without them possible and Angela Merkel will be Germany’s next chancellor.

The Social democrats lost more than five percentage points and gained 20.5 per cent of the votes. This is the worst result the Social democrats got in an election since the foundation of the Federal Republic. Immediately after election, SPD chairman Martin Schulz declared that the Social democrats will go into opposition in the new electoral term.

Largest gains got the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party received 12.6 per cent and will form the third-largest group in the 19th German Bundestag, given that the retreat of the party chairwoman Frauke Petry from the formally not even founded group only a few hours after election does not cause further dissolution. The Liberals returned to parliament with a result of 10.7 percent. Basically, the Left and the Greens confirmed their results from 2013 with 9.2 and 8.9 per cent, respectively.

Compared to 2013 turnout increased by roughly five percentage points to 76.2 per cent.