The German Elections of 2025: Campaigns and Consequences

As German citizens head to the polls on Sunday 23rd of February, Ukrainians continue to fend off the Russian aggressor and the EU is struggling for its role on the world stage. Meanwhile, the German campaigns are focused predominantly on domestic politics and issues such as the economy, welfare, and migration. On the other hand, policy issues such as climate change have received little attention during the campaigns. Which issues do voters find important? How did they make up their vote choice?  

As regards political dynamics, several parties have nominated chancellor candidates with the intention to lead the next government. At the same time, it is currently not clear for a number of parties whether they make it over the 5%-threshold to enter the German Bundestag. These dynamics will be decisive for the next government formation. Who will be the next chancellor and how will the new German government influence European politics? And although Friedrich Merz from the CDU has recently accepted support from the extreme right party AfD for controversial legislative proposals, mainstream parties currently promise not to include the AfD in the next government formation process. What impact do these political developments have on voter attitudes and voter behaviour?  

These and many more questions will be addressed during this symposium, in which political and communication scientists will take a look at the public opinion dynamics during the election campaigns, examine voter behaviour and discuss the election outcomes with respect to topics such as welfare and European integration. 

About the speakers 

Gianna Eick is Assistant Professor of Political Science (with tenure) in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (UvA). Her research interests include social rights, the development of new social policies, migration, Euroscepticism, and the increasing inequality in the wake of recent crises such as the financial crisis, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine. She has received various international research grants and prizes for her academic work. Her current NWO-funded research projects include “Social Investment and Migration” and “Social Policy Preferences, Vote Choice and Trust”. She is also currently part of several (cross-national) research projects on these topics, including the Horizon 2020 project “The Future of European Social Citizenship”. 

Theresa Kuhn is Professor of modern European history and politics at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on key challenges in European politics, such as euroscepticism, nationalism and increasing polarisation, particularly in light of recent crises such as the eurozone crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Currently, she leads a 5-year research project on European identity formation funded by the Dutch NWO. In 2020, she received the Young Scholar award for the most significant contribution to the interdisciplinary study of Europe for a scholar under the age of 40, awarded by the Council for European Studies. 

Andreas Schuck is Associate Professor of Political Communication & Journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on public opinion dynamics during election campaigns, media effects on political participation, citizen (de-)mobilization and behavioural change, and the role of emotions in political communication. He is Program Manager of the Amsterdam track specialization ‘Media and Politics’ in the international MA program in Journalism, Media and Globalisation. As with previous German elections, he currently leads a research project on the campaign dynamics and media effects in relation to the 2025 election. 

Katjana Gattermann (moderator) is Associate Professor of Political Communication & Journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests comprise press-politics relations, political communication, political behaviour, public opinion, and journalism with a regional focus on Europe and the European Union. She is member of the executive board of the 2024 European Election Study and is currently leading an NWO-funded research project on how and with what effects media and politics frame election results in the aftermath of democratic elections.