Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany Politisches System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German) | |
|---|---|
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| Polity type | Federaldemocraticparliamentaryrepublic |
| Constitution | Basic Law for Germany |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Bundestag andBundesrat |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | Reichstag building |
| Presiding officer | Julia Klöckner,President of the Bundestag |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of state | |
| Title | Federal President |
| Currently | Frank-Walter Steinmeier |
| Appointer | Bundesversammlung |
| Head of government | |
| Title | Federal Chancellor |
| Currently | Friedrich Merz |
| Appointer | President |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Cabinet of Germany |
| Current cabinet | Merz cabinet |
| Leader | Chancellor |
| Deputy leader | Vice Chancellor |
| Appointer | President |
| Headquarters | Chancellery |
| Ministries | 15 |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary of Germany |
| Federal Constitutional Court | |
| Chief judge | Stephan Harbarth |
| Seat | Seat of the Court,Karlsruhe |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Germany |
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Head of state |
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Germany is ademocratic andfederalparliamentaryrepublic, where federallegislative power is vested in theBundestag (the parliament of Germany) and theBundesrat (the representative body of theLänder, Germany's regional states).
Thefederal system has, since 1949, been dominated by theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) and theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Thejudiciary of Germany is independent of theexecutive and thelegislature, while it is common for leading members of the executive to be members of the legislature as well. The political system is laid out in the 1949 constitution, theGrundgesetz (Basic Law), which remained in effect with minor amendments afterGerman reunification in 1990.
The constitution emphasizes the protection ofindividual liberty in an extensive catalogue ofhuman andcivil rights and divides powers both between the federal and state levels and between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
West Germany was a founding member of theEuropean Community in 1958, which became theEU in 1993. Germany is part of theSchengen Area, and has been a member of theeurozone since 1999. It is a member of theUnited Nations,NATO, theG7, theG20 and theOECD.
TheEconomist Intelligence Unit rated Germany a "full democracy" in 2022.[1][needs update] According to theV-Dem Democracy indices, in 2023 Germany was the 15th most electoral democratic country in the world.[2]
Beginning with the election ofKonrad Adenauer in 1949, theFederal Republic of Germany hadChristian Democratic chancellors for 20 years until acoalition between theSocial Democrats and theLiberals took over. From 1982, Christian Democratic leaderHelmut Kohl was chancellor in a coalition with the Liberals for 16 years. In this period fell the reunification of Germany, in 1990: theGerman Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic. In the former GDR's territory, fiveLänder (states) were established or reestablished. The two parts of Berlin united as one "Land" (state).
The political system of the Federal Republic remained more or less unchanged. Specific provisions for the former GDR territory were enabled via theunification treaty between the Federal Republic and the GDR prior to theunification day of 3 October 1990. However, Germany saw in the following two distinct party systems: the Green party and the Liberals remained mostly West German parties, while in the East the former socialist state party, now called The Left Party, flourished along with the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats.
After 16 years of the Christian–Liberal coalition, led byHelmut Kohl, theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) together with the Greens won the Bundestag elections of 1998. SPD vice chairmanGerhard Schröder positioned himself as a centrist candidate, in contradiction to the leftist SPD chairmanOskar Lafontaine. The Kohl government was hurt at the polls by slower economic growth in the East in the previous two years, and constantly high unemployment. The final margin of victory was sufficiently high to permit a "red-green" coalition of the SPD withAlliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis '90/Die Grünen), bringing the Greens into a national government for the first time.
Initial problems of the new government, marked by policy disputes between the moderate and traditional left wings of the SPD, resulted in some voter disaffection. Lafontaine left the government (and later his party) in early 1999. The CDU won in some important state elections but was hit in 2000 by a party donation scandal from the Kohl years. As a result of thisChristian Democratic Union (CDU) crisis,Angela Merkel became chair.
Thenext election for theBundestag was on 22 September 2002. Gerhard Schröder led the coalition of SPD and Greens to an eleven-seat victory over the Christian Democrat challengers headed byEdmund Stoiber (CSU). Three factors are generally cited that enabled Schröder to win the elections despite poor approval ratings a few months before and a weaker economy: good handling of the100-year flood, firm opposition to the US2003 invasion of Iraq, and Stoiber's unpopularity in the east, which cost the CDU crucial seats there.
In its second term, the red–green coalition lost several very important state elections, for example inLower Saxony where Schröder was the prime minister from 1990 to 1998. On 20 April 2003, chancellor Schröder announced massive labor market reforms, calledAgenda 2010, that cut unemployment benefits. Although these reforms sparked massive protests, they are now credited with being in part responsible for the relatively strong economic performance of Germany during theeuro-crisis and the decrease in unemployment in Germany in the years 2006–2007.[3]
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On 22 May 2005 the SPD received a devastating defeat in its former heartland,North Rhine-Westphalia. Half an hour after the election results, the SPD chairmanFranz Müntefering announced that the chancellor would clear the way for new federal elections.
This took the republic by surprise, especially because the SPD was below 20% in polls at the time. The CDU quickly announcedAngela Merkel as Christian Democrat candidate for chancellor, aspiring to be the first female chancellor in German history.
New for the 2005 election was the alliance between the newly formedElectoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG) and the PDS, planning to fuse into a common party (seeLeft Party.PDS). With the former SPD chairman, Oskar Lafontaine for the WASG andGregor Gysi for the PDS as prominent figures, this alliance soon found interest in the media and in the population. Polls in July saw them as high as 12%.
Whereas in May and June 2005 victory of the Christian Democrats seemed highly likely, with some polls giving them an absolute majority, this picture changed shortly before the election on 18 September 2005.
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The election results of 18 September were surprising because they differed widely from the polls of the previous weeks. The Christian Democrats even lost votes compared to 2002, narrowly reaching the first place with only 35.2%, and failed to get a majority for a "black–yellow" government ofCDU/CSU and liberal FDP. But the red–green coalition also failed to get a majority, with the SPD losing votes, but polling 34.2% and the greens staying at 8.1%.The Left reached 8.7% and entered theBundestag, whereas the far-rightNPD only got 1.6%.[4]
The most likely outcome of coalition talks was a so-called grand coalition between the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). Three party coalitions and coalitions involving The Left had been ruled out by all interested parties (including The Left itself). On 22 November 2005, Angela Merkel was sworn in by PresidentHorst Köhler for the office of Bundeskanzlerin.
The existence of the grand coalition on federal level helped smaller parties' electoral prospects in state elections. Since in 2008, the CSU lost its absolute majority in Bavaria and formed a coalition with the FDP, the grand coalition had no majority in theBundesrat and depended on FDP votes on important issues. In November 2008, the SPD re-elected its already retired chairFranz Müntefering and madeFrank-Walter Steinmeier its leading candidate for the federal election in September 2009.
As a result ofthat federal election, the grand coalition brought losses for both parties and came to an end. The SPD suffered the heaviest losses in its history and was unable to form a coalition government. The CDU/CSU had only little losses but also reached a new historic low with its worst result since 1949. The three smaller parties thus had more seats in the GermanBundestag than ever before, with the liberal party FDP winning 14.6% of votes.
The CDU/CSU and FDP together held 332 seats (of 622 total seats) and had been in coalition since 27 October 2009. Angela Merkel was re-elected as chancellor, andGuido Westerwelle served as theforeign minister and vice chancellor of Germany. After being elected into the federal government, the FDP suffered heavy losses in the following state elections. The FDP had promised to lower taxes in the electoral campaign, but after being part of the coalition they had to concede that this was not possible due to theeconomic crisis of 2008. Because of the losses, Guido Westerwelle had to resign as chair of the FDP in favor ofPhilipp Rösler,federal minister of health, who was consequently appointed asvice chancellor. Shortly after, Philipp Rösler changed office and becamefederal minister of economics and technology.
After their electoral fall, the Social Democrats were led bySigmar Gabriel, a former federal minister and prime minister of Lower Saxony, and byFrank-Walter Steinmeier as the head of the parliamentary group. He resigned on 16 January 2017 and proposed his longtime friend and president ofEuropean ParliamentMartin Schulz as his successor and chancellor candidate.[5]Germany has seen increased political activity by citizens outside the established political parties with respect to local andenvironmental issues such as the location ofStuttgart 21, a railway hub, and construction ofBerlin Brandenburg Airport.[6]
The 18th federal elections in Germany resulted in the re-election ofAngela Merkel and her Christian democratic parliamentary group of the partiesCDU and CSU, receiving 41.5% of all votes. Following Merkel's first two historically low results, her third campaign marked the CDU/CSU's best result since 1994 and only for the second time in German history the possibility of gaining an absolute majority. Their former coalition partner, the FDP, narrowly failed to reach the 5% threshold and did not gain seats in theBundestag.[7]
Not having reached an absolute majority, the CDU/CSU formed agrand coalition with the social-democraticSPD after the longest coalition talks in history, making the head of the partySigmar Gabrielvice-chancellor and federalminister for economic affairs and energy. Together they held 504 of a total 631 seats (CDU/CSU 311 and SPD 193). The only two opposition parties were The Left (64 seats) and Alliance '90/The Greens (63 seats), which was acknowledged as creating a critical situation in which the opposition parties did not even have enough seats to use the special controlling powers of the opposition.[8]
The 19th federal elections in Germany took place on 24 September 2017. The two big parties, the conservative parliamentary groupCDU/CSU and the social democratSPD were in a similar situation as in 2009, after the last grand coalition had ended, and both had suffered severe losses; reaching their second worst and worst result respectively in 2017.[9]
Many votes in the 2017 elections went to smaller parties, leading the right-wing populist partyAfD (Alternative for Germany) into theBundestag which marked a big shift in German politics since it was the first far-right party to win seats in parliament since the 1950s.
With Merkel's candidacy for a fourth term, the CDU/CSU only reached 33.0% of the votes, but won the highest number of seats, leaving no realistic coalition option without the CDU/CSU. As all parties in the Bundestag strictly ruled out a coalition with the AfD, the only options for a majority coalition were a so-called "Jamaican" coalition (CDU/CSU,FDP,Greens; named after the party colors resembling those of the Jamaican flag) and a grand coalition with the SPD, which was at first opposed by the Social Democrats and their leaderMartin Schulz.[10]
Coalition talks between the three parties of the "Jamaican" coalition were held but the final proposal was rejected by the liberals of the FDP, leaving the government in limbo.[11][12] Following the unprecedented situation, for the first time in German history different minority coalitions or even direct snap coalitions were also heavily discussed. At this point,Federal PresidentSteinmeier invited leaders of all parties for talks about a government, being the first president in the history of the Federal Republic to do so.
Official coalition talks between CDU/CSU and SPD started in January 2018 and led to a renewal of the grand coalition on 12 March 2018 as well as the subsequent re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor.[13]
Scheduled elections for the new Bundestag were held on26 September 2021 during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Angela Merkel did not stand for a fifth term but handed her post over after the second longest term for a chancellor in German history.Olaf Scholz was sworn in as the new chancellor on 8 December 2021. His Social Democrats had won the plurality of votes and formed a liberal-left coalition government with The Greens and the FDP.[14]
For the first time since 1949 theSouth Schleswig Voters' Association was able to gain a seat in the Bundestag. As a party which represents Frisian and Danish minorities in Germany it is not bound by the 5% threshold.[15]The Left party missed that threshold as well and was only able to enter the Bundestag by winning three direct mandates. This was only the fourth time in history that this clause on the minimum number of constituency seats required for party representation in Parliament was applied.[16]
In February 2022,Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected for a second five-year term as Germany's president. Although a largely ceremonial post, he has been seen as a symbol of consensus and continuity.[17]
In a highly publicized break with her former party, The Left,Sahra Wagenknecht formed her own left-wing but culturally and socially conservative populist party, theSahra Wagenknecht Alliance in 2024. Along with 9 other former members of The Left who held on to their seats in the Bundestag after leaving the party, they now hold 1.36% of mandates and cost The Left party its status as a parliamentary group.[18][19]
On 6 November 2024, chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Christian Lindner from his post as finance minister, starting the2024 German government crisis.[20] After the FDP left the coalition, Scholz announced avote of confidence which he lost.[21] President Steinmeier would dissolve the Bundestag on 27 December 2024, paving the way fornew federal elections in Germany.[22]
Elections for the 21st German Bundestag were held on February 23rd 2025. The CDU/CSU came first with 28.6% of the vote with the SPD suffering their worst result in German history with 16.4% of the vote, hence losing the chancellorship.[23] Following the elections CDU/CSU and SPD formed a coalition and the Bundestag electedFriedrich Merz as chancellor on May 6th 2025.[24]
The "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany" (Grundgesetz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the Constitution of Germany.[25] It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of theAllies of World War II on 12 May, came into effect on 23 May, as the constitution of those states ofWest Germany that were initially included within the Federal Republic. The 1949 Basic Law is a response to the perceived flaws of the 1919Weimar Constitution, which failed to prevent the rise of the Nazi party in 1933. Since 1990, in the course of the reunification process after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Basic Law also applies to the eastern states of the formerGerman Democratic Republic.
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The German head of state is the federal president. As in Germany'sparliamentary system of government, thefederal chancellor runs the government and day-to-day politics, while the role of the federal president is mostly ceremonial. The federal president, by their actions and public appearances, represents the state itself, its existence, its legitimacy, and unity. Their office involves an integrative role.[26] Nearly all actions of the federal president become valid only after acountersignature of a government member of Germany.
The president is not obliged by Constitution to refrain from political views. The president is expected to give direction to general political and societal debates, but not in a way that is linked to party politics. Most German presidents were active politicians and party members prior to the office, which means that they have to change their political style when becoming president. The function comprises the official residence ofBellevue Palace.
Under Article 59 (1) of theBasic Law, the federal president represents the Federal Republic of Germany in matters of international law, concludes treaties with foreign states on its behalf and accredits diplomats.[27]
All federal laws must be signed by the president before they can come into effect. The president does not have formal a veto, but the conditions for refusing to sign a law on the basis of unconstitutionality are the subject of debate.[28] The office is currently held byFrank-Walter Steinmeier (since 2017).
The federal president does have a role in the political system, especially at the establishment of a new government and the dissolution of the Bundestag (parliament). This role is usually nominal but can become significant in case of political instability. Additionally, a federal president together with theFederal Council can support the government in a "legislatory emergency state" to enable laws against the will of the Bundestag (Article 81 of the Basic Law). However, so far the federal president has never had to use these "reserve powers".
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TheBundeskanzler (federal chancellor) heads theBundesregierung (federal government) and thus theexecutive branch of the federal government. They are elected by and responsible to theBundestag, Germany's parliament. The other members of the government are the federal ministers; they are chosen by the Chancellor. Germany, like the United Kingdom, can thus be classified as aparliamentary system. The office is currently held byFriedrich Merz (since 2025).
The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a four-year term unless theBundestag has agreed on a successor. Thisconstructive vote of no confidence is intended to avoid a similar situation to that of theWeimar Republic in which the executive did not have enough support in the legislature to govern effectively, but the legislature was too divided to name a successor. The current system also prevents the Chancellor from calling asnap election.
Except in the periods 1969–1972 and 1976–1982, when the Social Democratic party of ChancellorsBrandt andSchmidt came in second in the elections, the chancellor has always been the candidate of the largest party, usually supported by a coalition of two parties with a majority in the parliament. The chancellor appoints one of the federal ministers as their deputy,[29] who has the unofficial titleVice Chancellor (German:Vizekanzler). The office is currently held byLars Klingbeil (since 2025).
The German Cabinet (Bundeskabinett orBundesregierung) is the chiefexecutive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of thechancellor and thecabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's organization are set down in articles 62–69 of theBasic Law.
Agencies of the German government include:
Federal legislative power is divided between theBundestag and theBundesrat. TheBundestag is directly elected by the German people, while theBundesrat represents the governments of the regional states (Länder). The federal legislature has powers ofexclusive jurisdiction andconcurrent jurisdiction with the states in areas specified in the constitution.
TheBundestag is more powerful than theBundesrat and only needs the latter's consent for proposed legislation related to revenue shared by the federal and state governments, and the imposition of responsibilities on the states. In practice, however, the agreement of theBundesrat in the legislative process is often required, since federal legislation frequently has to be executed by state or local agencies. In the event of disagreement between theBundestag and theBundesrat, either side can appeal to theVermittlungsausschuss [de] (Mediation Committee), aconference committee-like body of 16Bundesrat and 16Bundestag members, to find a compromise.[30]
TheBundestag (Federal Diet) is elected for a four-year term and consists of 598 or more members elected by a means ofmixed-member proportional representation, which Germans call "personalised proportional representation". 299 members represent single-seatconstituencies and are elected by afirst-past-the-post electoral system (Direktmandat), where others (Listenkandidat) are elected from astate list.
A party must receive either 5% of the national vote or three direct constituencies to be eligible for non-constituency seats in theBundestag. This rule, often called the "five-percent hurdle", was incorporated into Germany's election law to prevent political fragmentation and minority parties from becoming disproportionately influential. Parties representing ethnic minorities are exempt from this threshold.
Parties that obtain fewer constituency seats than their national share of the vote are allotted seats fromstate party lists to make up the difference. In contrast, parties that obtain more constituency seats than their national share of the vote are allowed to keep these so-calledoverhang seats. In federal elections since 2013, other parties obtain extra seats ("balance seats") that offset advantages from their rivals' overhang seats. The currentBundestag is the largest in German history with 736 members.
A 2023 reform of German election law limits the size of theBundestag to 630 members for upcoming federal elections. Unless exempt from the hurdle, parties that do not make the 5% threshold will no longer be granted representation in parliament even if their candidates win three constituencies. In the same context, the system of overhang and balance seats will also be abolished. Opposition parties have announced they will challenge the decision in Federal Constitutional Court.[31]
The firstBundestag elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") on 14 August 1949. Following reunification,elections for the first all-GermanBundestag were held on 2 December 1990. The lastfederal election was held on 23 February 2025.
Germany follows thecivil law tradition. The judicial system comprises three types of courts.
The main difference between the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice is that the Federal Constitutional Court may only be called if a constitutional matter within a case is in question (e.g. a possible violation of human rights in a criminal trial), while the Federal Court of Justice may be called in any case.
Germany maintains a network of 229 diplomatic missions abroad and holds relations with more than 190 countries.[32] It is the largest contributor to the budget of theEuropean Union (providing 27%) and third largest contributor to theUnited Nations (providing 8%). Germany is a member of theNATO defence alliance, theOrganisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), theG7, theG20, theWorld Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF).
Germany has played a leading role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained astrong alliance with France since the end of World War II. The alliance was especially close in the late 1980s and early 1990s under the leadership ofChristian DemocratHelmut Kohl andSocialistFrançois Mitterrand. Germany is at the forefront of European states seeking to advance the creation of a more unified European political, defence, and security apparatus.[33] For a number of decades after WWII, the Federal Republic of Germany kept a notably low profile in international relations, because of both its recent history and its occupation by foreign powers.[34]
During the Cold War, Germany's partition by theIron Curtain made it a symbol of East–West tensions and a political battleground in Europe. However, Willy Brandt'sOstpolitik was a key factor in thedétente of the 1970s.[35] In 1999, ChancellorGerhard Schröder's government defined a new basis for German foreign policy by taking a full part in the decisions surrounding theNATO war against Yugoslavia and by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II.[36]
The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies.[37] The 1948Marshall Plan and strong cultural ties have crafted a strong bond between the two countries, although Schröder's very vocal opposition to theIraq War had suggested the end ofAtlanticism and a relative cooling of German–American relations.[38] The two countries are also economically interdependent: 5.0% of German exports in goods are US-bound and 3.5% of German imported goods originate from the US with atrade deficit of -63,678.5 million dollars for the United States (2017).[39] Other signs of the close ties include the continuing position of German–Americans as the largest reported ethnic group in the US,[40] and the status ofRamstein Air Base (nearKaiserslautern) as the largest US military community outside the US.[41]
In 1952 the German government agreed topay reparations to theJewish state ofIsrael amounting to 3 billionmarks, equivalent to $8.8 billion today, for the costs of "resettling so great a number of uprooted and destitute Jewish refugees" after theSecond World War, and for compensating individual Jews for the losses of livelihood and property due toNazi persecution, after there emerged a clear moral imperative for societal and political leaders to confront the past. Diplomatic relations were eventually established in 1965 after significant reconciliation efforts, particularly from religious institutions such as theGerman Coordinating-Council for Christian-Jewish cooperation and theAction Reconciliation Service for Peace.[42] This context means that there is aspecial relationship between Germany and Israel which continues to the present day.
The policy on foreign aid is an important area of German foreign policy. It is formulated by theFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by the implementing organisations. The German government sees development policy as a joint responsibility of the international community.[43] In 2024 Germany was the second biggest donor of development cooperation after the United States, spending 32.4 billion USD, equivalent to 0.67% of GNI, onOfficial development assistance.[44]
Germany comprisessixteen states that are collectively referred to asLänder.[45] Due to differences in size and population, thesubdivision of these states varies especially betweencity-states (Stadtstaaten) and states with larger territories (Flächenländer). For regional administrative purposes five states, namely Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony, consist of a total of 22government districts (Regierungsbezirke). As of 2009 Germany is divided into 403districts (Kreise) on municipal level, these consist of 301rural districts and 102urban districts.[46]
| Map (Clickable) | State | Capital | Area (km2) | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | Stuttgart | 35,752 | 10,717,000 | |
| Bavaria | Munich | 70,549 | 12,444,000 | |
| Berlin | Berlin | 892 | 3,400,000 | |
| Brandenburg | Potsdam | 29,477 | 2,568,000 | |
| Bremen | Bremen | 404 | 663,000 | |
| Hamburg | Hamburg | 755 | 1,735,000 | |
| Hesse | Wiesbaden | 21,115 | 6,098,000 | |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Schwerin | 23,174 | 1,720,000 | |
| Lower Saxony | Hanover | 47,618 | 8,001,000 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | Düsseldorf | 34,043 | 18,075,000 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | Mainz | 19,847 | 4,061,000 | |
| Saarland | Saarbrücken | 2,569 | 1,056,000 | |
| Saxony | Dresden | 18,416 | 4,296,000 | |
| Saxony-Anhalt | Magdeburg | 20,445 | 2,494,000 | |
| Schleswig-Holstein | Kiel | 15,763 | 2,829,000 | |
| Thuringia | Erfurt | 16,172 | 2,355,000 |
While East-Germany was under a single-party system, there was only a brief period when the SPD governed West-Germany alone on a federal level as a minority party following the dissolution of its coalition with the FDP in 1982.[47] Otherwise, all governments in West- and post-reunification Germany have been coalitions between two or more parties. In German political tradition, these usually receive a name often based on the parties' colors:
Due to thecordon sanitaire (usually calledBrandmauer, firewall, in Germany) all other parties have established against the AfD, hypothetical coalitions involving the AfD are rarely discussed. A coalition of CDU/CSU, AfD and FDP would have had a majority in the20th Bundestag elected in 2021, but was not seriously discussed publicly by either media or politicians. Such a coalition does not have a common nickname, but the term "Bahamas coalition", in reference to the colors of theflag of the Bahamas (including the AfD's light blue), was coined in 2013.[48][49] Other coalitions involving the AfD are considered even more unlikely due to lack of parliamentary majority, ideological differences and the cordon sanitaire.[citation needed]
The divide between the East and the West Germany can be seen in contemporary German elections. TheAlternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party has a stronghold in the formerEast Germany. The left-wing populistDie Linke party (which has roots in the SED) used to have a stronghold in the East as well. The far-rightNational Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) used to have representation in the East where they were stronger. This is in stark distinction from West Germany where the more centrist parties such as theCDU/CSU,SPD,The Greens, and theFDP dominate.
