Vote21 - Milestones & facts for Germany's packed election year
The era of Chancellor Angela Merkel will come to an end after four terms in office when Germans head to the polls on 26 September. Concerns over climate change rank much higher on many voters' and parties' agendas in the upcoming parliamentary elections than they did in the previous vote in 2017. Yet, the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout have added huge uncertainties. This factsheet sketches the road to the 2021 federal elections and will be regularly udpated.
The weight of climate and energy policy on Germany's political landscape has grown at a staggering rate since the country last headed into a general election in 2017. Several droughts and heatwaves at home, the surge of international climate protests, unrelenting news of wildfires and melting ice caps around the world and also the staunch rejection of climate action by the Trump administration in the US have catapulted the topic to unprecedented heights on the average German citizen's agenda in recent years and also left its mark on the course of action of all leading political parties.
The following overview provides dates, contacts and facts on the election that is going to show how Germany approaches the ambitious 2030 climate and energy transition goals it has set itself and within the EU.
Websites and polling agencies
Bundeswahlleiter.de
The latest official information on the elections can be found on the English language website of the Federal Returning Officer. The site offers an election glossary, explaining terms like "overhang mandates" ,"Sainte-Laguë/Schepers", and "proportional representation". After the elections, the website will present the official results.
Wahlrecht.de
A group of students established poll tracking website Wahlrecht.de as an independent, non-party, non-commercial website on election topics, electoral systems, the right to vote and opinion polls for federal and state elections. Parts of the site are in English, but most information is available only in German. Here you can find a list of the latest poll results by Germany’s large polling agencies and here Wahlrecht.de’s Twitter feed.
Twitter
Common hashtags for the German federal elections are #BTW, #BTW21, #btw2021 or #Bundestagswahl.
pollytix strategic research
pollytix offers a visualisation of trends in Germans’ party preferences in opinion polls, and a coalition calculator.
Polling agencies
forsa, Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, infratest dimap, INSA-CONSULERE, Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (IfD), Kantar Emnid, YouGov
German election trend
The pollytix german election trend is calculated daily from the weighted average of all major federal voting intention polls of the previous twenty days in Germany.
Dates
Parliamentary election (Bundestagswahl): The elections for a new Geman parliament will be held on 26 September, Germany's electoral management body announced in December.
National party conventions:
SPD: 9 May
Greens: 11-13 June
Left Party: 19 - 20 June
FDP: 14-16 May
Election manifestos: Climate and energy are two of the key issues that dominate Germany's 2021 general election. Clean Energy Wire provides a compact overview of major parties' plans to make the country comply with international climate targets and improve the emissions balance across all sectors of the economy. Find the factsheet here.
Municipal elections: Local issues normally dominate votes in cities, towns and counties, yet local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on 13 September 2020 got extra attention, as the coal-mining state is home to over one fifth of Germany's population and also the home base for the two main CDU leadership contenders. The election was won by the CDU under state premier Armin Laschet and also brought large gains for the Green Party.
State elections: There will be elections in five out of Germany's 16 federal states in 2021, ranging from the large and affluent southern state Baden-Wurttemberg to the small but prominent city state of Berlin.
Rhineland-Palatinate: 14 March
Baden-Wurttemberg: 14 March
Saxony-Anhalt: 6 June
Berlin: 26 September
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: 26 September
Ahead of the election - where Germany stands on…
…emissions reduction
Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped nearly nine percent in 2020 - the largest annual fall since 1990 - as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed down the use of fossil fuels and added to the effects of the shift to renewable energy sources, mild weather and rising CO2 prices. Almost all sectors have reached their emissions reduction targets for 2020 and Germany's overall goal of a 40 percent emission reduction over 1990 has been achieved. But structural problems with respect to decarbonisation persist, especially in the heating and transport sectors.
The CDU/CSU and SPD government coalition sought to address problems in these sectors with its Climate Action Programme 2030. Amongst other things, the programme launched at the end of last year introduced a carbon price in the heating and transport sectors at the beginning of 2021. The initial price is 25 euros per tonne of CO2 and will subsequently climb to 55 euros per tonne by 2025, a level regarded as much too low by climate activists. It could still become a target for energy transition critics pointing at rising costs, although lower surcharges on electricity are meant to provide financial relief.
Moreover, in order to ensure steady progress on the way to its 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 55 percent in line with the tighter EU target, the country also adopted a Climate Action Law, which is meant to provide monitoring mechanisms for metering and, if need be, imposing reduction measures in each sector. The government also said it was striving for a European Climate Action Law that sets the aim of 2050 greenhouse gas neutrality, although there is still considerable disagreement to what extent Germany needs to contribute to intermediate European goals for 2030. Germany will likely increase its national 2030 climate target in the near future to be in line with the new EU goals.
...renewables expansion
Wind, solar PV and other renewable sources overtook fossil fuels in German power production in 2020. However, think tank Agora Energiewende says this would not have happened without the pandemic and that it expects emissions to rise in 2021.
About 43 percent of Germany's power consumption was covered with renewables in 2019. The share in gross energy consumption, however, was still significantly lower and climbed from just below 15 percent in 2019 to 17.5 percent in the first half of 2020. The government plans to bring the share in power consumption to 65 percent by 2030. While the scheduled end to nuclear power production in 2022 and the gradual phase-out of coal plants are likely to let the share of wind turbines, solar panels, biogas plants and other renewables rise, the expansion of clean power installations has faltered significantly in recent years and as of 2020 was far below the levels needed to stay on track for the target.
The need for faster expansion becomes even more urgent when considering the likely growth in electricity consumption in the country as millions of e-cars are expected to hit the road over the course of the next decade and Germany plans to steer a lot of its renewable power output into the production of green hydrogen, which the government has identified as a sort of panacea for accomplishing emission reductions in the most stubbornly fossil-intensive sectors.
Several policy initiatives have been launched in recent months to overcome the impasse in renewables expansion, such as a review of minimum distance and licensing rules for new wind turbines, a removal of support limits to solar power installations and measures to speed up Germany's lagging power grid expansion, a technical prerequisite for making renewable power available throughout the whole country. The governing coalition parties in German parliament agreed on higher tender volumes for next year's wind and solar PV installations. But parliamentarians did not make headway on a new renewables target for 2030, leaving this key step to the next government following the September elections.
...transport transition
In spite of the government's decision to leave out premium payments for the purchase of combustion engine-powered cars from its coronavirus recovery programme, which was widely considered an unprecedented estrangement of policymakers from the powerful German automotive industry, the sector inevitably looms large in any German election due to its sheer size and importance for the country's industrial basis.
Transport emissions remain the "problem child" in Germany's climate action activities – bar the pandemic's effect on mobility behaviour, the greenhouse gas output of cars, lorries, airplanes and other means of transportation has not shrunk at all since 1990.
The new pricing scheme for carbon emissions in the transport sector and the promised roll-out of dozens of new electric vehicle models by all major car companies are poised to bring about a change in trend regarding the sector's climate impact. But major question marks remain over the survival of many jobs relying on combustion engines and the abolishment of a technology many Germans regard as one of their country's greatest engineering achievements.
While plummeting passenger numbers caused by the pandemic are putting a strain on plans to quickly ramp up urban public transport systems and long-distance train connections, setting up a nation- or even Europe-wide charging system for e-cars could also throw a spanner in the works of a transition in the transport sector.
Party profiles
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
Christlich Demokratische Union
The conservative, centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been in government under Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2005 and regularly polls as the strongest political force in the country. The party is led by chancellor candidate Armin Laschet. Together with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) – which only operates in the federal state of Bavaria – the CDU forms the CDU/CSU “Union”. They have a joint parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and a joint election programme.
Press contact: Hero Warrings, +49 30 220 70-143 and -144, pressestelle@cdu.de
Christian Social Union (CSU)
Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) is a conservative political party that only operates in the state of Bavaria. Together with its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - which operates in the remaining 15 federal states – the CDU/CSU, also known as the “Union,” form a joint parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. The CSU is led by Bavarian state premier Markus Söder.
Press contact: Simon Rehak +49 89 1243 - 367, presse@csu-bayern.de
Social Democratic Party (SPD)
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
The Social Democratic Party (SPD), traditionally the leading party of the centre-left in Germany, has been the CDU/CSU’s junior partner in a so-called "grand coalition" three times since 2005. Party leaders are leftwingers Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, who beat the more centrist vice chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz in an internal contest at the end of 2019. Nevertheless, the popular Scholz has been nominated as the SPD's candidate for chancellor. The party already began wrangling heavily over a continuation of the grand coalition at the last election and many favour a partnership with the Greens and the Left Party for the next government coalition.
Press contact: Ingrid Herden / Bianca Walther, +49 30-25991 – 300, pressestelle@spd.de
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
Freie Demokratische Partei
The Free Democratic Party led by Christian Lindner is Germany's economic liberal and market-oriented party. Although the party failed to enter federal parliament in 2013 for the first time in post-war history, it re-entered parliament in 2017 and also sits in government in several states (e.g. North Rhine-Westphalia). It has formed coalitions with both the CDU/CSU and the SPD in the past and prevented the formation of the first Conservative-Green-FDP government after the last election by pulling out of coalition talks shortly before they were expected to come to a positive conclusion.
Press contact: Nils Droste, +49 30 22751-990, presse@fdp.de
Green Party
Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen
The centre-left Green Party grew out of the environmental, peace and anti-nuclear movements in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as GDR citizens’ movements. It participated in a national government between 1998 and 2005 with the SPD and today sits as coalition partner in several state governments. The Greens have made significant gains in national polls since 2017, shortly even overtaking the CDU/CSU in popularity in 2019, before stabilising as the second strongest political force for most of 2020. Party leaders are Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck. Annalena Baerbock is chancellor candidate.
Press contact: Nicola Kabel, +49 30 284 42 130, presse@gruene.de
Left Party
Die Linke
The Left Party is the country’s most leftwing political force. It was founded in 2007 from the successor party to the GDR’s Socialist Unity Party together with the SPD leftist carve-out WASG. Hardline positions on issues such as foreign and security policy have so far hampered a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, but the party has signalled its readiness to adapt certain positions and pave the way for a leftwing coalition after the next election. The Left already forms a coalition with the SPD and Greens at the state level under its own leadership in Thuringia. Party chairs are Susanne Hennig-Wellsow and Janine Wissler.
Press contact: Sonja Giese, +49 159 04 18 68 47, sonja.giese@die-linke.de
Alternative for Germany (AfD)
Alternative für Deutschland
Germany’s newest major party, the rightwing Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013, was originally based mainly on anti-eurozone policies and entered the federal parliament for the first time in 2017. Since its foundation, the party has constantly shifted to the right, focusing on issues such as migration and Islam and resistance to Germany's climate and energy transition policy. All other major parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD. The party is led by Jörg Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla.
Press contact: +49 30 2205696-55; presse@afd.de
