The centre-right CDU/CSU alliance won the European elections in Germany followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in second place. This was confirmed by the national electoral authority after all votes had been counted. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition suffered, namely his Social Democrats (SPD) and his main coalition partners at national level, the Greens. Scholz’s SPD obtained 13.9% of the votes (14 seats), while the Greens fell to 11.9% (12 seats), a sharp decline compared to the 2019 result of 20.5%. Coalition partner FDP, known for its pro-business stance, received 5.2% (five seats).
The Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) who are in opposition at the national level, together obtained 30% of the vote, or 29 seats. This is the same number of seats as the current outgoing European Parliament. The Eurosceptic AfD made significant gains, receiving 15.9% of the vote, compared to 11% in the 2019 European elections, and gaining 15 seats.
The newly formed populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) obtained 6.2% for six seats, while the far-left party The Left collapsed to just 2.7%, or three seats.
Record turnout at 64.8%, the highest since reunification
Record turnout since reunification, with 64.8% of eligible voters going to the polls. This was announced by federal official Ruth Brand at the end of the counting of votes in the 400 constituencies. This is 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2019, when the highest turnout was recorded since German reunification in 1990. The percentage of invalid votes was 0.8%, according to Brand.
Germany is the most populous country in the EU and has 96 of the 720 seats in the European Parliament, with around 65 million eligible voters. In the first post-reunification European Parliament elections in 1994, voter turnout was 60 percent. In the following elections it hovered between 40% and 50%. The highest turnout in the European elections in Germany was that of 1979, with 65.7% in the then West Germany.
