Germany also has a number of other parties, in recent history most importantly the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left, and more recently the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013. The federal government of Germany often consisted of a coalition of a major and a minor party, specifically CDU/CSU and FDP or SPD and FDP, and from 1998 to 2005 SPD and Greens. From 1966 to 1969, from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2021, the federal government consisted of a coalition of the two major parties, called a grand coalition.[1]
Coalitions in the Bundestag and state legislatures are often described by party colors. Party colors are red for the Social Democratic Party, green for Alliance 90/The Greens, yellow for the Free Democratic Party, purple (officially red, which is customarily used for the SPD) for the Left, light blue for the AfD, and black and blue for the CDU and CSU respectively.[2][3]
Current parties
Party membership in Germany (since 1945; East German parties joined in 1990)
↑ BSW has been variously described as left-wing, far-left, and left-conservative; the latter label is due to its more right-wing stance on socio-cultural issues.
The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.
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Grand coalition is a term in German politics describing a governing coalition of the parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) along with its sister party the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), since they have historically been the major parties in most state and federal elections since 1949. The meaning of the term may change due to the growth of some formerly minor parties in recent years.
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Federal elections were held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, chose not to run again, marking the first time that an incumbent Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany did not seek re-election.
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 13 February 2022 to elect the next president of Germany.
The next election to the Landtag of Thuringia is scheduled for 1 September 2024.
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The 2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 15 May 2022 to elect the 18th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Hendrik Wüst.
In Germany's federal electoral system, a single party or parliamentary group rarely wins an absolute majority of seats in the Bundestag, and thus coalition governments, rather than single-party governments, are the usually expected outcome of a German election. As German political parties are often associated with particular colors, coalitions are frequently given nicknames based on the colors included. Prominent political parties in Germany are the CDU/CSU (black), the SPD (red), the Greens (green), the Left, the AfD (blue), and the FDP (yellow).
The 2023 Hessian state elections was held on Sunday October 8, to elect the 21st Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and The Greens, led by Minister-President Boris Rhein of the CDU. The 2023 Bavarian state election was held the same day.
The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice or Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice is a German political party founded on 8 January 2024. The party was preceded by the establishment of a registered association, created on 26 September 2023 and primarily made up of former members of the German political party The Left, for the purposes of preparing the founding of the new political party. Plans for the new party were presented at a federal press conference on 23 October 2023 by Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye, former managing director of The Left in North Rhine-Westphalia Lukas Schön, and entrepreneur Ralph Suikat.
↑ "Erster Bundesparteitag der Wagenknecht-Partei BSW begonnen"[First federal party conference of the Wagenknecht party BSW begins]. Deutschlandfunk (in German). 27 January 2024. Auf der eintägigen Veranstaltung, zu der die 450 Gründungsmitglieder geladen waren, soll zunächst der Parteivorstand gewählt werden.[At the one-day event, to which the 450 founding members were invited, the party executive committee is to be elected first.]
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