Germany's Political Parties: A Guide to the Spectrum

Stand dieser Lektion: März 2025 (main text). Party positions and election results reflect the situation as of March 2025 (Bundestagswahl 23 February 2025). Separate update, 2 May 2025: the AfD BfV classification was changed on that date and is reflected in the AfD section below. For use after late 2025, verify current figures against party programmes, Bundeswahlleiterin data, and BfV annual reports.

This lesson describes the positions each major German party has taken in its official programmes and in the 2021 and 2025 federal elections, drawing on published party documents and the official final result of the 2025 Bundestagswahl as declared by the Bundeswahlleiterin and the Bundeswahlausschuss on 14 March 2025 (Mitteilung 29/25). The aim is factual orientation, not evaluation. You will be asked later to form your own judgement; that judgement is yours, not the textbook's. This lesson follows the Beutelsbach Consensus — the rule for German civic education that controversial matters in politics must be presented as controversial, that the teacher must not push students toward a particular view (Überwältigungsverbot), and that students must be enabled to analyse the political situation in their own interests. Classifications by the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, which are administrative acts rather than value judgements by this textbook, are noted where applicable. Every party described here is a legal political party in the Federal Republic; none has been banned by the Bundesverfassungsgericht at the time of writing.

SPD — Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands. Founded 1863, the oldest surviving German party. Core positions drawn from its Hamburger Programm of 2007 (the current Grundsatzprogramm at the time of writing) and the 2025 Wahlprogramm: a strong welfare state, a significantly higher statutory minimum wage (the SPD’s 2025 Wahlprogramm called for a raised Mindestlohn; the specific indexation mechanism should be verified against current party programme documentation), strengthened collective bargaining, progressive income taxation, pro-European integration, support for Ukraine in the current war, NATO commitment, and a long-term climate-neutrality path aligned with the 2045 target. Historic base: industrial workers and trade unions, now broadened to public-sector employees, urban graduates and parts of the middle class. (Historical retrospective) Led the Ampelkoalition under Olaf Scholz from December 2021 until its breakdown in November 2024 (Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Lindner on 6 November 2024; the Bundestag’s vote of no confidence followed, and the early federal election took place on 23 February 2025). For current government participation, consult current sources.

CDU/CSU — Christlich Demokratische Union and Christlich-Soziale Union. Two separate parties with their own programmes and organisations that form a single Fraktion in the Bundestag; the CSU operates only in Bavaria, the CDU everywhere else. The CDU adopted a new Grundsatzprogramm in 2024 (In Freiheit leben. Deutschland sicher in die Zukunft führen); the CSU maintains its own Grundsatzprogramm of 2016 plus subsequent programmatic papers. The CDU/CSU ran on a joint Wahlprogramm for the 2025 federal election. Commonly shared positions include a social market economy with lower taxation of middle incomes, fiscal conservatism and adherence to the debt brake, support for NATO and strong transatlantic ties, a restrictive migration policy with clear legal pathways for skilled labour, preservation of traditional family structures alongside equal rights, and a technology-open approach to climate policy (including debates around nuclear extension, though the CDU accepted the 2023 shutdown). The CSU typically takes more conservative positions on migration and cultural questions than the CDU.

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Founded 1980 (West) and 1990 (East, as Bündnis 90), merged 1993. Core positions drawn from its 2020 Grundsatzprogramm and the published 2025 Wahlprogramm: accelerated energy transition with a renewables target of 80 % of electricity by 2030, expanded public transport funding, a carbon price with social compensation, a liberal migration policy, a strong civil-rights record on LGBTQ+ and minority protection, a feminist foreign policy, continued military support for Ukraine, and defence of the EU rule-of-law mechanism. Base: urban graduates, younger voters, increasingly also parts of the professional middle class.

FDP — Freie Demokratische Partei. Liberal party. Core positions drawn from its most recent federal resolutions and the 2025 Wahlprogramm: lower marginal tax rates, deregulation, digitalisation of public administration, strict adherence to the debt brake, openness to technology including synthetic fuels and extended nuclear, civil liberties and data-protection priorities, a skilled-migration law, and Atlantic foreign policy. Left the Ampelkoalition on 6 November 2024 after Chancellor Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Lindner; this contributed politically (though not procedurally on its own) to the early federal election of 23 February 2025. In that election the FDP missed the 5 % threshold with 4.3 % of Zweitstimmen and did not enter the 21st Bundestag.

Die Linke. Formed 2007 from the merger of the PDS (successor of the East German SED) and WASG (a West German left-wing split from the SPD). Core positions drawn from its Erfurter Programm of 2011 and the 2025 Wahlprogramm: wealth and inheritance tax increases, rent controls, a minimum wage well above the current statutory level, scepticism toward NATO and weapons exports, opposition to the 2023–24 sanctions regime in its current form, defence of welfare-state universality. In January 2024 a large group around Sahra Wagenknecht left the party to form BSW. In the 2025 Bundestagswahl, Die Linke cleared the 5 % threshold nationally with 8.8 % of Zweitstimmen and entered the Bundestag with 64 seats (Bundeswahlleiterin, 29/25).

AfD — Alternative für Deutschland. Founded 2013, initially on a euro-critical platform, now the main right-wing opposition. Core positions drawn from its Grundsatzprogramm of 2016 and the 2025 Wahlprogramm: exit from or fundamental restructuring of the euro and EU, restrictive migration policy including more deportations and stronger border controls, scepticism toward current climate policy and the carbon market, opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine, preservation of what the programme calls German cultural identity, and traditional family policy. Status as of early 2025 (February–April 2025, as written for this lesson): the AfD was classified at federal level by the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz as a Verdachtsfall ("suspected case") of rechtsextremistische Bestrebungen; several state Landesämter (Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg) had already classified their AfD-Landesverband as gesichert rechtsextremistisch. Update (2 May 2025): the BfV upgraded its federal-level classification of the entire AfD to gesichert rechtsextremistisch (Verfassungsschutzbericht 2024, press release 2 May 2025); the party was contesting this in administrative court (status as of May 2025; verify current proceedings). These are factual administrative determinations, not value judgements by this lesson. These classifications are factual administrative determinations, not the conclusion of this lesson. In the 2025 federal election, the AfD obtained approximately 20.8 % of Zweitstimmen and 152 Bundestag seats (Bundeswahlleiterin final result, 29/25), entering as the second-largest Fraktion.

BSW — Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht. Founded January 2024 by Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other MPs who had left Die Linke. Core positions drawn from its founding Gründungsmanifest: economically left (higher taxes on wealth, higher minimum wage, rent controls) combined with culturally conservative positions (restrictive migration, scepticism toward aspects of gender and identity politics), and — distinctively — opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine and to the sanctions regime. Entered several Landtage in September 2024 (Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg). In the 2025 Bundestagswahl, BSW obtained approximately 4.98 % of Zweitstimmen and missed the 5 % threshold, so it did not enter the 21st Bundestag (Bundeswahlleiterin, 29/25).

Note: the positions above describe what each party publicly advocates in its own documents as of early 2025. Voters, academics, and other parties draw very different conclusions about whether those positions are good, realistic, compatible with the Basic Law, or desirable. That evaluation belongs to you.

Sources: Party programmes (spd.de, cdu.de, csu.de, grüne.de, fdp.de, die-linke.de, afd.de, bsw-vg.de). Die Bundeswahlleiterin, Endgültiges Ergebnis der Bundestagswahl 2025, Mitteilung 29/25 (bundeswahlleiterin.de, 14 March 2025). Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Lagebericht Rechtsextremismus 2024 and Pressemitteilung vom 2. Mai 2025 zur Einstufung der AfD (verfassungsschutz.de). Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Parteien in Deutschland (bpb.de, 2024–25). Wikipedia, Bruch der Ampelkoalition in Deutschland 2024 (as a starting point for primary sources, not as an authority).