Ten parties standing in all areas of Germany

In Germany, any citizen can set up their own political party. The Federal Returning Officer follows a set of formal criteria to decide who can stand for election. Forty-one parties put their names forward for the Bundestag election on 23 February 2025. However, only 29 gathered the number of signatures required to get onto the ballot paper itself. Of these, ten are standing candidates in all of Germany’s federal states. They include the parties currently represented in the Bundestag: SPD, FDP, Greens, Linke, AfD and BSW The CDU/CSU union is unusual in that the CSU only stands in Bavaria, while the CDU is on the ballot in all other federal states. 

Four of the small parties are standing for election across the whole country 

The other four parties are the Freie Wähler (Free Voters), Volt, Bündnis Deutschland (Alliance Germany), and the MLPD (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany). 

• Freie Wähler: The Free Voters are a confederation which emerged from groups of voters not allied to any particular party in municipal elections. They are liberal/conservative in political outlook. In Bavaria, the Freie Wähler are members of the governing coalition with the CSU. 
• Volt Deutschland: As a social-liberal party with a European focus, Volt is strongest at a local level, although it does have representatives in the European Parliament. Its members are also part of city governments in Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and others. 
• Bündnis Deutschland: The smallest of the parties is considered legally conservative and economically liberal. It has not made any impression on opinion polls so far. It gained a seat in the Bundestag in December 2024 when an AfD representative changed his allegiance. 
• MLPD: In addition to Marx, Engels and Lenin, the fringe communist party also refers to Stalin and Mao Zedong. It has not gained any traction in opinion polls.  

SSW: uniquely representing the Danish minority 

Among the parties which are only standing in some federal states, the SSW (South Schleswig Voters' Association) is particularly significant. It is the only party which represents a minority that is guaranteed a seat in the Bundestag, even if it only receives a small number of votes. The SSW only stands in certain areas of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein to represent the Danish minority there.