When voters cast their ballots on February 23, 2025, they won’t directly elect the next German chancellor. Instead, they will elect politicians to the Bundestag, the lower house of German parliament. Unless a party wins an outright majority, the party with the most representatives in the Bundestag attempts to build a governing coalition. Such coalitions usually hold a parliamentary majority, with contemporary Germany only twice having had minority governments — in 1966 and 1982. Ordinarily, the party with t