2009 German federal election

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27 September 2009 (2009-09-27)

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elected members →

All 622 seats in the Bundestag, including 24 overhang seats
312 seats needed for a majority

Registered

62,168,489

0.5%

Turnout

44,005,575 (70.8%)

6.9pp

	First party	Second party	Third party

Candidate	Angela Merkel	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Guido Westerwelle
Party	CDU/CSU	SPD	FDP
Last election	35.2%, 226 seats	34.2%, 222 seats	9.8%, 61 seats
Seats won	239	146	93
Seat change	13	76	32
Popular vote	14,658,515	9,990,488	6,316,080
Percentage	33.8%	23.0%	14.6%
Swing	1.4pp	11.2pp	4.8pp

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Candidate	Gregor Gysi & Oskar Lafontaine	Jürgen Trittin & Renate Künast
Party	Left	Greens
Last election	8.7%, 54 seats	8.1%, 51 seats
Seats won	76	68
Seat change	22	17
Popular vote	5,155,933	4,643,272
Percentage	11.9%	10.7%
Swing	3.2pp	2.6pp

The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows party list winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours.

Government before election

First Merkel cabinet
CDU/CSU–SPD

Government after election

Second Merkel cabinet
CDU/CSU–FDP

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Federal elections were held in Germany on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag.^[1]

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) won the election, and the three parties formed a new centre-right government with Angela Merkel as chancellor. While CDU/CSU's share of votes decreased slightly, it was more than compensated by the gains of their "desired coalition partner", the liberal FDP, that won the strongest result in its history.

CDU and CSU's former partner in the "Grand coalition", the Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, conceded defeat^[2] after dropping by more than 11 percentage points, receiving its hitherto worst result since the end of the Second World War (only undercut in 2017).

At 69.8 percent, the voter turnout was the lowest in a German federal election since 1949.

^ "Der Wahltermin für die Bundestagswahl 2009". Der Bundeswahlleiter. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
^ "Merkel's rival concedes defeat in German election". The Telegraph. London. 27 September 2009. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2009.