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AT A GLANCE
PARLIAMENT & PARTIES
The German Bundestag is elected every four
years by free, secret, and direct ballot by citizens
aged 18 and over who are eligible to vote. The
Bundestag is the German parliament. Half of
Parties
the at least 598 seats in the Bundestag are allocated through the election of candidates put up
by the parties on state lists (second votes), the
other half through the election of persons in
299 constituencies (first votes). The German
electoral system makes it difficult for any one
Christian Democratic Union
of Germany (CDU)
457,488 members
2013 election result: 34.1 percent
party to form a government on its own – meaning that a coalition tends to be the rule. In order
to prevent complications in the formation of
majorities by the presence of small and very
small parties, a threshold, known as “the five
percent hurdle” excludes parties that poll less
than that being represented in the Bundestag.
Social Democratic Party
of G ermany (SPD)
459,902 members
2013 election result: 25.7 percent
Five parties are currently represented in the
Bundestag: CDU, CSU, SPD, The Left party, and
Alliance 90/The Greens. Ever since the first
election to the Bundestag in 1949, CDU and its
sister party CSU, which only stands in Bavaria,
The Left party
60,547 members
2013 election result: 8.6 percent
have formed a single parliamentary party. In
the 2013 election to the Bundestag, the Free
Democratic Party (FDP) failed to clear the five
percent hurdle and is thus not represented in
the Bundestag for the first time since 1949. The
current Federal Government is made up of a
Alliance 90 / The Greens
60,329 members
2013 election result: 8.4 percent
coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, with Dr. Angela
Merkel (CDU) as the Federal Chancellor, Sigmar
Gabriel (SPD) as Deputy Chancellor and
Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) as Federal
Foreign Minister. The Left party and the Greens
form the parliamentary opposition.
Christian Social Union (CSU)
146,536 members
2013 election result: 7.4 percent