Germany’s next national parliamentary elections will be held on September 28, 2025, after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially announced the schedule on Friday.
The elections will determine seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, and could upset the balance of power in German politics. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government is struggling in the opinion polls.
Steinmeier chose this date based on a recommendation from the cabinet in July.
According to German law, elections must be held on a Sunday or a national holiday. The Basic Law requires that parliamentary elections be held no earlier than 46 months and no later than 48 months after the beginning of the election period.
This means that the date of the 2025 Bundestag elections had to fall somewhere between August 27 and October 26.
There will be fewer seats up for grabs in the Bundestag at the next elections.
Due to complicated provisions in German electoral law, there is no fixed number of seats in the Bundestag. In the last national elections in 2021, the chamber grew to 733 members.
But in the meantime, parliamentarians have approved an electoral reform supported by Scholz’s coalition, which will give the Bundestag a maximum of 630 seats.
