21st Bundestag
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 21st Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, was elected in the 23 February 2025 federal election. It was constituted on the last possible date, 25 March, with the old parliament changing the constitution in between.[1]
| 21st Bundestag | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
Reichstag building in 2024 | |||
| Overview | |||
| Legislative body | Bundestag | ||
| Jurisdiction | Germany | ||
| Meeting place | Reichstag building, Berlin | ||
| Term | 25 March 2025 – | ||
| Election | 23 February 2025 | ||
| Bundestag | |||
| Members | 630 | ||
| President | Julia Klöckner (CDU/CSU) | ||
The President of the Bundestag is Julia Klöckner (CDU). Each party's respective faction is supposed to be represented by one Vice-President, in most cases a formality. Since the AfD joined the Bundestag for the first time in 2017, no AfD candidate has ever been approved in dozens of attempts, due to the "firewall" policy of all other parties.
The 21st Bundestag is the first to have the fixed number of 630 members, 103 seats smaller than the 20th Bundestag, with 733 members resulting from former proprotional regulations. It started with 208 members of the CDU/CSU (Union), 152 members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), 120 members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), 85 members of Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne), 64 members of The Left (Linke), and one member of the Danish regional minority South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW).
One AfD parliamentarian (Sieghard Knodel) left his party and its faction after[2] on 2 May 2025 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, (BfV) Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency, had classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" organisation.[3][4] This classification was temporarily suspended by the BfV just a week after its announcement.[5]
On 6 May 2025 Friedrich Merz (CDU) was elected as Chancellor of Germany and sworn in alongside his cabinet. Merz failed to garner the required absolute majority of parliamentary votes in a first round of voting – a first in German history for a chancellor candidate.[6]
Presidium
According to Bundestag parliamentary rules of procedure, each faction is entitled to one Vice-President, with each faction candidate usually approved on first ballot. This has not been applied yet to any AfD candidate, even though a few already had served as state parliament Vice-Presidents. As of October 2025, the AfD had put forward three candidates during a total of five ballot occasions during 21st Bundestag sessions, all of which have failed to reach the required majority, usually winning only a few dozens votes from other factions. Since the party joined the Bundestag in 2017, none of dozens of AfD candidates has ever been approved.
| President | Party | Ballot | Term | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| President | Julia Klöckner | CDU | 382 / 622 |
25 Mar. 2025 – present | |
| Vice-President | Andrea Lindholz | CSU | 425 / 613 |
25 Mar. 2025 – present | |
| Vacant | AfD | Ballots
|
N/A | ||
| Josephine Ortleb | SPD | 434 / 613 |
25 Mar. 2025 – present | ||
| Omid Nouripour | GRÜNE | 432 / 613 |
25 Mar. 2025 – present | ||
| Bodo Ramelow | LINKE | 318 / 613 |
25 Mar. 2025 – present | ||
| Source: Bundestag | |||||
Parliamentary groups
| Group | Members | Chairperson(s) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At election | Current | ||||
| CDU/CSU | 208 / 630 |
208 / 630 |
Friedrich Merz Jens Spahn |
15 Feb. 2022 – 5 May 2025 5 May 2025 – present | |
| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 152 / 630 |
151 / 630 |
Alice Weidel Tino Chrupalla |
26 Oct. 2021 – present 26 Oct. 2021 – present | |
| Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) | 120 / 630 |
120 / 630 |
Lars Klingbeil Matthias Miersch |
26 February 2025 – 6 May 2025 7 May 2025 – present | |
| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 85 / 630 |
85 / 630 |
Katharina Dröge Britta Haßelmann |
7 Dec. 2021 – present 7 Dec. 2021 – present | |
| The Left (Linke) | 64 / 630 |
64 / 630 |
Heidi Reichinnek Sören Pellmann |
19 Feb. 2024 – present 19 Feb. 2024 – present | |
| Non-attached members | 1 / 630 |
2 / 630 | |||
| Source: Bundestag | |||||
List of current members
This is the list of members elected in the 2025 election according to preliminary results.[7]
List of former members
| Image | Name | Year of birth | Party | State | Constituency | Vote% | List# | Member since | Date of departure | Notes | Replacement | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annalena Baerbock | 1980 | GRÜNE | Brandenburg | Potsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II | 15.9 % | 1st | 2013 | 30 June 2025 | President of the United Nations General Assembly | Andrea Lübcke | ||
| Uwe Foullong | 1957 | Linke | North Rhine-Westphalia | Bottrop – Recklinghausen III | 5.7% | 10th | 2025 | 31 July 2025 | Health reasons | Lisa Schubert | ||
| Robert Habeck | 1969 | GRÜNE | Schleswig-Holstein | Flensburg – Schleswig | 22.6% | 2nd | 2021 | 31 August 2025 | Resigned to pursue academic work | Mayra Vriesema | ||
| Henning Otte | 1968 | CDU | Lower Saxony | Celle – Uelzen | 35.2% | 12th | 2005 | 5 June 2025 | Commissioner for the Armed Forces of the German Bundestag | Reza Asghari | ||
| Volker Schnurrbusch | 1958 | AfD | Schleswig-Holstein | Ostholstein – Stormarn-Nord | 17.3% | 3rd | 2025 | 4 April 2025 | Accepted a vacant seat in the European Parliament | Alexis Giersch | ||
| Carsten Träger | 1973 | SPD | Bavaria | 1st | 2013 | 21 March 2026 | Died | David Mandrella | ||||