{"id":13645,"date":"2025-03-24T19:52:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2025-03-24T19:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:52:47","slug":"a-german-shift-to-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2025\/03\/24\/a-german-shift-to-the-right\/","title":{"rendered":"A German Shift to the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Sophie Ulm<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Staff Writer<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"ose-gettyimages ose-uid-4d968c3b389b06ce04cd65b851c10713 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:723px; height:623px; max-height:623px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"GettyImages\"><a id=\"_8HO9CdwTrxM9LnVxwZC4Q\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2200907573\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:\"_8HO9CdwTrxM9LnVxwZC4Q\",sig:\"bUk7d6FY_iB5j8-yDt69vS2Mai3M4k8H5XY8ZPbD-p0=\",w:\"594px\",h:\"396px\",items:\"2200907573\",caption: false ,tld:\"com\",is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async><\/script><\/div>\n\t\t\t<script>\n\t\t\t\tif (typeof gie === 'function') {\n\t\t\t\t\tgie(function(){\n\t\t\t\t\t\tvar iframe = document.querySelector('.ose-embedpress-responsive iframe');\n\t\t\t\t\t\tif(iframe && !iframe.getAttribute('title')){\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tiframe.setAttribute('title', '')\n\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t});\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Germany\u2019s elections on February 23 brought a new chancellor for the country and the largest voter turnout the country has recently seen. While Freidrich Merz and the Christian Democrats won the chancellery, they will still have to work to form a coalition with at least one other party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The election saw voter turnout at 82.5 percent, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/german-election-results-explained-in-graphics\/a-71724186\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DW<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a significant increase from the 76.6 percent turnout in 2021. The Christian Democratic Union won 28.6 percent of the vote, the Alternative for Germany party received 20.8 percent of the vote, the Social Democrats won 16.4 percent, the Free Democratic Party won 11.6 percent, and other parties received small percentages of the remaining votes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Christian Democrats, previously led by Angela Merkel, have become more right-wing under Friedrich Merz\u2019s leadership, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/24\/world\/europe\/takeaways-germany-election.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Merz is a businessman who has pushed for more conservative stances on migration and the economy, among other issues. Despite winning the elections, The New York Times reports that only about a third of Germans believe in Merz\u2019s ability to lead Germany as the chancellor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Major priorities for the Christian Democrats include maintaining European stability and navigating transatlantic relationships. In the midst of uncertainty about the United States\u2019 future involvement in Europe, and particularly in Ukraine, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/germany-politics-election-results-afd-merz-4b862dcd150423028cc1ac1e6663cb82\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Associated Press<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports that Merz is taking the issue seriously, stating that an American deal with Russia \u201cover the heads of Europe\u201d would not be acceptable. The Christian Democrats\u2019 relationship with the U.S. could prove a challenge, as the U.S. Vice President, JD Vance, openly supports the Alternative for Germany party. The dynamic in Ukraine is shaped by the fact that, according to The Associated Press, Germany is the second largest supplier of weapons to Ukraine behind the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The elections were triggered when the Free Democratic Party left the coalition headed by the former German Chancellor, Olaf Schulz, due to budget disputes, reports <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/2\/24\/german-election-who-won-who-lost-and-whats-next\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Al Jazeera<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In order to have a majority of the 630 seat Bundestag, a coalition must reach the 316 mark, which each of the parties individually failed to do. Currently, the Christian Democratic Union only needs one other party, the Social Democrats, to form a majority coalition, if all of the right concessions are made. Merz, according to Al Jazeera, is hopeful that he will have a new government formed by April 20.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With Merz\u2019s decision to align his party in a coalition with the Social Democrats, the two have already reached a number of agreements in order to share power, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/mar\/08\/german-election-winner-merz-moves-step-closer-to-forming-government\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Guardian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Some of the new policies that the coalition hopes to implement are more restrictive stances on immigration, including turning away all undocumented migrants at the German border, including those seeking asylum, and establishing a 15 euro-an-hour minimum wage. But the parties also have a greater goal in mind: winning back voters from the Alternative for Germany party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Alternative for Germany party is Germany\u2019s far-right political party. They were not chosen to participate in a coalition with Merz\u2019s party because of a \u201cfirewall\u201d system established by Germany\u2019s main political parties after World War II to not work with extremist parties, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cx29wlje6dno\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BBC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The party has been labeled as a far-right extremist organization by Germany\u2019s courts and domestic intelligence, though the party maintains that it is not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the pushback from the government, the party has become more normalized to Germans in recent years, with about one in five Germans saying that it is a normal political party, reports the BBC. The Alternative for Germany party performed best in East Germany and among younger voting populations, with the party winning 21 percent of the votes of individuals between the ages of 18 and 24.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Image courtesy of\u00a0<em>Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germany\u2019s elections on February 23 brought a new chancellor for the country and the largest voter turnout the country has recently seen. While Freidrich Merz and the Christian Democrats won the chancellery, they will still have to work to form a coalition with at least one other party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2845,5],"tags":[404,467,526,2899],"class_list":["post-13645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2845","category-focus","tag-elections","tag-germany","tag-europe","tag-polotics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A German Shift to the Right - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2025\/03\/24\/a-german-shift-to-the-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A German Shift to the Right - The Diplomatic Envoy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Germany\u2019s elections on February 23 brought a new chancellor for the country and the largest voter turnout the country has recently seen. 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