BERLIN: German voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament that will determine how the country is run for the next four years.
\nEurope\u2019s biggest economy is the 27-nation European Union\u2019s most populous nation and a leading member of NATO, as well as the second-biggest weapons supplier to Ukraine, after the United States, following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022. Germany\u2019s next government will be central to Europe\u2019s response to an assertive new US administration.
\nHere\u2019s a look at what to expect for Sunday and beyond.
\nWhat happens on election day?
\nPolls are due to open at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.. Germans can also vote by postal ballot, but their ballot must arrive by the time polling stations close on election day to be counted.
\nExit polls will come and vote-counting will begin immediately after voting ends, and the general picture of the outcome should be clear very quickly. A final official result is expected early Monday.
\nWho are the contenders?
\nFour candidates are running to be Germany\u2019s next leader: incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats; Friedrich Merz, the candidate of the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union party; current Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, of the environmentalist Greens; and Alice Weidel, of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
\nPreelection polls have put Merz\u2019s Union bloc in the lead with support of about 30 percent, ahead of AfD, with around 20 percent. Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats and Habeck\u2019s Greens are further back.
\nMerz is favored to replace Scholz as chancellor, but it\u2019s not yet clear what governing coalitions will be possible after the election. How easy it is to form a government may depend in part on how many parties are in the new parliament. Opinion polls show three parties hovering around the 5 percent of the vote needed to win seats.
\nAll mainstream parties say they won\u2019t work with AfD.
\nWhat\u2019s up for grabs?
\nAt least 59.2 million people in a country of 84 million are eligible to vote for the new Bundestag, or lower house of parliament. It is the 630-member Bundestag that will elect the next chancellor, Germany\u2019s equivalent of a prime minister.
\nThere are 29 parties on the ballot, but it\u2019s likely that between five and eight of them will get enough votes to win seats in parliament. In most cases, parties must win at least 5 percent of the vote to get a share of the seats.
\nWhat happens after polls close?
\nGermany\u2019s electoral system rarely gives any party an absolute majority and opinion polls suggest that no party is anywhere near one this time. The country has no tradition of minority governments at national level, which means that two or more parties will most likely form a coalition.
\nThere is no formal referee for the process of forming a new government, and no set time limit. Parties hold exploratory talks to determine who they have most common ground with, and one combination of parties then moves on to formal coalition talks.
\nThose negotiations typically produce a detailed coalition agreement setting out the new government\u2019s plans. That will typically need approval at least from conventions of the parties involved. Some parties may choose to put it to a ballot of their entire membership.
\nOnce that process is complete, the Bundestag can elect the new chancellor.
\nWhat\u2019s at stake?
\nA strong German government would be important to Europe\u2019s response to the new US administration and to turmoil in Ukraine and elsewhere.
\nGermany and neighboring France have traditionally been the motor of the EU, but both heavyweights have been consumed by domestic political instability in recent months.
\nThis election is being held seven months earlier than originally planned because Scholz\u2019s three-party coalition collapsed in November as it argued about how to reinvigorate the economy, which has shrunk for the past two years. One of the new government\u2019s most urgent tasks will be to find a coherent response to that problem.
\nAnother challenge will be further reducing irregular migration, which has been a top issue in the campaign.
\nMerz has said he hopes to form a new government by mid-April if he wins. Scholz\u2019s outgoing government will remain in office on a caretaker basis until the Bundestag elects the new chancellor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN: German voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament that will determine how the country is run for the next four years. Europe\u2019s biggest economy is the 27-nation European Union\u2019s most populous nation and a leading member of NATO, as well as the second-biggest weapons supplier to Ukraine, after the United …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77351,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77333\/revisions\/77351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}