Preliminary final result: Union ahead - FDP and BSW out

DTS news agency Preliminary final result: Union ahead - FDP and BSW out 1 hour • 1 minute reading time Friedrich Merz with top Union politicians on February 23, 2025 Berlin (dts news agency) - Only five factions will probably be represented in the new Bundestag. According to preliminary information from the Federal Election Commissioner early Monday morning, the CDU and CSU will be the strongest force with a combined 28.5 percent. They are followed by the AfD (20.8), SPD (16.4), Greens (11.6) and Left (8.8 percent). Among those missing out on a place in the Bundestag is the BSW, which received 4.972 percent - almost 13,500 votes were missing to reach the 5 percent hurdle. The FDP was even more clearly eliminated from the Bundestag, with the Liberals only receiving 4.3 percent according to the preliminary final result. The other results of the even smaller parties: Free Voters 1.5, Animal Protection Party 1.0, Volt 0.7, "The Party" 0.5, Alliance Germany 0.2, Die Basis 0.2, ÖPD 0.1 percent. The South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW) has 0.2 percent, but will probably still be allowed to take a seat in the Bundestag due to a minority rule. Other even smaller parties are only reported by the Federal Returning Officer with 0.0 percent, including well-known names such as "Team Todenhöfer", the Pirate Party, MLPD or the "Werteunion", which did not receive 7,000 votes nationwide. The Federal Returning Officer did not initially provide any information on the distribution of seats. However, the Union will probably have 208 seats, the AfD 152, the SPD 120, the Greens 85 and the Left 64 seats. A possible coalition between the CDU/CSU and the Greens would therefore not have a majority of its own, unlike a "GroKo" between the CDU/CSU and the SPD - probably the most likely option.