# 2025 German Federal Election The snap Bundestag election of **February 23, 2025** followed the collapse of [[Olaf Scholz]]'s three-party coalition. The CDU/CSU under [[Friedrich Merz]] won. The [[AfD]] finished second with its best national result ever, after a campaign in which [[Elon Musk]] and [[JD Vance]] openly backed it. ## Result | Party | Share | Seats | |---|---|---| | CDU/CSU | 28.5% | 208 | | AfD | **20.8%** | **152 (+69)** | The AfD roughly doubled its 2021 share. The CDU/CSU total was well below the conservatives' historic highs. The other parties kept the *Brandmauer*, their refusal to govern with the AfD, and Merz formed a government without it. He was elected chancellor on **May 6, 2025**, only on a second ballot after falling six votes short in the first, which had never happened before in postwar Germany. ## The American intervention The campaign featured unusually direct American involvement. Musk campaigned for the AfD from December 2024 with posts, a *Welt am Sonntag* op-ed, a live X conversation with [[Alice Weidel]] and a video speech to the party's campaign launch (see [[Musk AfD Campaign]]). Nine days before the vote, Vance attacked European "firewalls" at Munich and met Weidel (see [[Vance Munich Security Conference Speech]]). German parties and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the outside interference. There is no published analysis that isolates its effect on the result. > [!note] Draft — expand with > Turnout, full party table (SPD, Greens, Linke, BSW, FDP), the east–west split in the AfD vote, and the coalition negotiations. ## See Also - [[Musk AfD Campaign]] · [[AfD]] · [[Alice Weidel]] · [[Friedrich Merz]] - [[2026 Saxony-Anhalt State Election]] · [[German History Hub]]