Abstract

DAEHNHARDT, Patrícia. Elections in Germany: changes in the party system and Europe put on hold. Relações Internacionais [online]. 2017, n.56, pp.93-111. ISSN 1645-9199.  https://doi.org/10.23906/ri2017.56a06.

The German Bundestag elections took place amidst a disorderly international system and ongoing political turmoil in relations between European countries, the United States, Russia and Turkey, where leadership expectations increasingly fall on Germany. The elections of 24 September 2017 penalized the two largest parties and confirmed a change of the party system and of German political stability. Two and a half months after the elections, and the failure of prenegotiations between CDU/CSU, FDP and the Greens, the options for a new CDU/CSU-SPD grand coalition, a minority government or new elections are still open. This delay in finding a solution for government formation is unexpected and has implications for Europe because political stability in Germany is the prerequisite of European political stability and because it puts the rest of Europe on hold. The article analyses the electoral outcome, the evolution of the party system since then, and argues that the transformations of the German party system help explain the current post-election impasse: increased fragmentation of the party system, electoral volatility and a marked ideological polarization, which is reflected, in the post-election context, in the existence of now seven political parties with parliamentary representation and the affirmation of a multiparty system.

Keywords : German party system; elections; coalition-building; multiparty system.

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