Fortunately, the AFD strategy of political polarisation and moralisation combined with conjuring up fictitious doomsday scenarios and stirring up fears was not successful enough to get them into government. Even if they like to see themselves that way, they are not the sole representatives of the German people. It's also great that Die Linke did so well. I'm really celebrating that now.

That's the aforementioned political dead end of German politics: the CDU has lost so much trust with right-wing voters that they won't win them back from the AfD without actual, tangible bills and executive actions - but as long as they rule out coalitions with the AfD, they are destined to coalesce with left-wing parties where such tangible action is impossible. On the flip side, the AfD has also attracted a couple of voters who used to lean to the political left, so that left-wing governments against the CDU have also become unrealistic.

Hence, the only workable coalitions left are murky alliances across political camps in which gridlock reigns supreme. These inefficient makeshift coalitions in the middle strengthen the fringes, rinse and repeat. The past 3.5 years under a "traffic light" coalition between Social Democrats, Greens and the libertarian/classically liberal Free Democrats were an experiment at finding another way out of this impasse, but it was a disaster. Now, the Free Democrats are out of parliament and on the verge of political extinction, so this option is dead and buried for the forseeable future.

How on earth could AfD think running a lesbian was a good idea

Lots of people would have voted CDU instead simply because of that

The strategy of the AfD was never geared toward getting into government in 2025; their strategy was always eyeing 2029. Tonight, they doubled their result from the previous election and put themselves in a position of great strength, which will give them a good shot at becoming part of government the next time around.



All in all, the political left in Germany lost strength to the political right, the next head of government will be a conservative instead of a social democrat, and the AfD doubled its result. Make no mistake, this was a bad night for lefty voters.

No. Simply no. Across pretty much all of Germany and Western Europe, nobody gives a fuck about gay candidates anymore. One of the deputy leaders of the CDU (and one of the party's more prominent faces) is himself a f...ine homosexual gentleman.

Or maybe they do… But don’t say it publicly

That's just not true, lots of older guys won't vote for it on principle. And being lesbian is a double whammy

This post was edited by El1te on Feb 23 2025 06:29pm

Correct

And where do you think these "anti-gay" voters cast their ballot? With the CDU, whose deputy leader is openly gay? With any of the lefty/progressive parties which have embraced and outright celebrated queerness for years? If you want arch-conservative or even "reactionary" policies, casting your vote for the AfD or the CDU is still your best bet.


It's kinda similar to how Trump is clearly a sinner and not very religious, yet receives the overwhelming majority of the evangelical vote: he's still their best option by far.

Wow, that was a nail biter! According to provisional end results, the upstart left-wing populist party BSW has received 4.972% of the vote in Germany's federal election, missing out the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation by only 13000 votes (out of over 49.9 million votes which were cast in this election).

Hence, a coalition between the center-right mainstream conservative CDU and the Social Democrats will have enough seats for a majority without the Greens. This has major ramifications for the future course of the country, particularly in the fields of climate and energy, migration and welfare policy. It also means that conservatives will have a roughly 64:36 weight dominance in the upcoming German government; rather than a 50:50 balance if the Greens had to be included.

For how much international observers praise Germany's "stable political system" and deride the US system, it is bonkers how a 0.03% higher or lower vote share for an unrelated third party can have such a massive influence on the shape of the resulting government. Also, a total of 13.7% of all votes which were cast went to parties which failed to clear the 5% threshold and will thus not be represented in parliament at all. For how much the proportional representation system is said to reflect the will of the electorate better than the FPTP system in the Anglosphere, this is an unsatisfying state of affairs.



I might add some more details, thoughts and punditry tomorrow.