Next German national election formally set for September 28, 2025

Germany's next nationwide parliamentary election will be held on September 28, 2025, after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially announced the schedule on Friday.

The election will determine seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament, and could upend the balance of power in German politics. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition government have been struggling in opinion polls.

Steinmeier's choice of date followed a recommendation from the Cabinet made in July.

German law mandates that elections must be held on a Sunday or a public holiday, and the constitution requires that a parliamentary election must take place no earlier than 46 months and no later than 48 months after the start of the electoral term.

That means the date of the 2025 Bundestag election had to fall sometime between August 27 and October 26.

There will be fewer seats up for grabs in the Bundestag in the next election.

Complicated provisions in German electoral law mean that there are not a fixed number of seats in the Bundestag, and the results of the most recent national election in 2021 saw the chamber swell to 733 members.

But lawmakers have since approved an electoral reform backed by Scholz's coalition that will cap the Bundestag at 630 seats.