Vegan Hip-Hop Dadaist? You’re Spoiled for Choice in German Vote
- More than 40 parties are running in big increase from 2013
- Parties need to get 5 percent of vote to win Bundestag seats
Merkel's Election Challenges
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Want to shrink the German economy? Hold an independence referendum in Bavaria? Give break-dancing a boost? Germans can’t complain about a lack of options in next week’s national election.
With 42 parties on the national ballot, that’s 12 more than four years ago. As elsewhere in Europe, mainstream party loyalties are eroding and alternative groupings are trying to woo both an increasingly skeptical electorate and non-voters. The populist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is on course to win parliamentary seats on Sept. 24, increasing the number of parties in the Bundestag to six. Yet the chance of smaller parties reaching the 5 percent share of the vote needed to win seats looks vanishingly slim.