Explained: How does Germany’s electoral system work and what changes this year?

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Explained: How does Germany’s electoral system work and what changes this year?  Sunday’s crunch vote is a first test for a recently reformed electoral law.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/02/23/explained-how-does-germanys-electoral-system-work-and-what-changes-this-year  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Voting in Germany is notoriously complex, but we're here to break it down for you.

00:06On February 23rd, around 60 million eligible voters are called to the ballot boxes to elect

00:13630 members of the Bundestag.

00:16Voters do not directly elect the country's chancellor, but the results will eventually

00:21determine who governs and whose chancellor.

00:25Each ballot paper has two votes.

00:27The first is for a candidate running in the voter's electoral district.

00:32There are 299 of these across Germany.

00:35The candidate with most votes in a given district wins a seat in the Bundestag based on a first-past-the-post

00:41system.

00:42The second vote is for a political party.

00:45This vote determines how the Bundestag's seats are distributed between the parties

00:50and it's based on proportional representation.

00:53So if a party gets 20% of the vote, it should get 20% of seats.

00:59But here's the catch.

01:02A party must either win at least 5% of the national vote or get at least three members

01:09directly elected in their districts in order to be represented in the Bundestag.

01:14This is to avoid political fragmentation and legislative gridlock.

01:18Look out for this on election night, as there are three parties polling around the 5% mark

01:24Whether they reach the threshold or not could be crucial for efforts to form a government.

01:29In past elections, additional Bundestag seats have been created for candidates who directly

01:35win a district seat, but where that seat hasn't been secured by their party in the second

01:41vote.

01:42This time though, these seats, known as overhang seats, will be scrapped, as new legislation

01:47has been passed to keep the seat number to 630 and prevent the Bundestag from growing.

01:53After seats have been allocated, parties enter talks to form a majority coalition to

01:58govern.

01:59The German president puts forward a candidate for chancellor, usually in agreement with

02:04coalition parties.

02:05The candidates must then secure majority support in the Bundestag to be elected.

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