Nearly 60 million German voters were due to go to the polls on 23 February 2025, and the catch for the rest of Europe is that the parties disagree sharply on what the European Union should become. A Freshfields analysis of the party manifestos laid out where they split.
The vote followed the November 2024 collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP). Friedrich Merz, lead candidate for the CDU/CSU conservatives, looked set to play a key role in whatever came next. A new party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a spin-off from the Left, had already entered state-level coalitions and would appear on the federal ballot. Polls suggested the far-right Alternative for Germany would be the strongest opposition party, though every other party had ruled out working with it.
Shared goal, different bills
All parties say they want a more competitive EU economy. They part ways on how to pay for it.
The Greens back new EU funding mechanisms and joint bonds, plus changes to the Multiannual Financial Framework within the Next Generation EU fund, so that money flows to infrastructure and climate-neutral growth. They would also rewrite state aid rules to help industry cut emissions. The FDP rejects EU-level debt and any extension of Next Generation EU. The SPD wants the financial framework redirected toward areas with “recognisable European added value.”
The CDU/CSU favors market-based answers and technological openness, and supports projects such as IPCEIs and the European Chips Act, along with updated competition and antitrust law. The FDP prefers broad or sector-specific free trade agreements and wants cohesion policy aimed at high-impact projects instead of regional redistribution. The SPD puts digital infrastructure first, to strengthen cross-border services and protect jobs, alongside a resilience strategy for critical industries.
Who wants to change the institutions
The SPD, Greens, CDU/CSU and FDP all call for a stronger, more efficient EU. The BSW goes the other way and wants fewer EU competences, with power decentralised.
The SPD, Greens and FDP would drop the unanimity principle in favour of qualified majority voting, and let the European Parliament initiate legislation. The CDU/CSU stops short of that but backs reforms to improve efficiency, including changes in how the EU institutions work. The FDP wants a smaller European Commission. The SPD pictures a union built on solidarity, while the Greens aim, over the long term, for a federal European republic. For the SPD, Greens and FDP, Franco-German cooperation and the “Weimar Triangle” sit at the center of deeper integration.
The CDU/CSU and FDP also stress cutting EU bureaucracy and limiting the over-implementation of EU laws.
The new European Commission has made competitiveness its flagship priority, moving away from the Green Deal that defined the previous term. Freshfields noted that rising nationalist and far-right movements across member states, visible in the European Parliament after the 2024 elections, raise the risk of fragmentation.
Sources
Sources
- Opinion polling for the 2025 German federal election – Wikipedia
- German Election #3: How Germany’s vote could reshape the EU
