On February 23, Germany will hold early elections to the Bundestag. Voting started immediately after the polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time (that is, at 9 a.m. Kyiv time). According to DW, the results of the exit polls will be made public on the same day at 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. Kyiv time) after the end of voting.
More than 59 million German citizens can take part in the elections, because there are about 65,000 polling stations in the country, distributed among 299 electoral districts, and 29 parties will compete.
Early elections were called after the collapse of the government coalition, which for three years united the parties: Social Democratic Party (red), “Soyuz90/Greens” (green) and the Free Democratic Party (yellow). This coalition was usually called “lighthouse”.
Germany will elect a new parliament in special elections on February 23, which must later approve a new chancellor. Polls indicate the superiority of Friedrich Merz, a veteran of the political arena and a representative of the same party as former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mertz calls on European partners to increase defense spending and continue to support Kyiv.
The governing coalition, which included the Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Greens, collapsed in November 2024. Only a month later, the Bundestag announced a vote of no confidence in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, leading to the appointment of early parliamentary elections for February 23, 2025.
