On 6 May 2025, the German Bundestag elected Friedrich Merz as the 10th Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. This was preceded by snap federal elections on 23 February 2025, which led to negotiations between the election winner, the conservative CDU/CSU, and the Social Democratic SPD of the incumbent Chancellor Scholz. The coalition agreement of the new government forms the basis for the government's work during its term of office from 2025 to 2029. The new federal government intends to focus particularly on economic and foreign policy measures.
On 23 February 2025, almost 60 million German voters elected a new parliament in snap elections after the governing coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (B90/Die Grünen) and the Liberals (FDP) broke apart in November 2024.
As expected, the conservative CDU/CSU under their chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz won the election. Since the CDU/CSU had ruled out cooperation with the far-right AfD before the election, the election result means that a two-party coalition is only possible with the social democratic SPD of the incumbent Chancellor Scholz. The AfD is the second strongest party and thus the strongest opposition parliamentary group. While the left-wing party (Die Linke) surprisingly succeeded in re-entering parliament, the liberal FDP and the left-party split-off BSW failed to enter parliament. Freshfields keeps an eye on the latest developments and positioning regarding the election and the formation of a government.
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