German Federal Elections

The German Federal Elections 2017: 22^nd September update

Among all the candidates running in the 2017 German Federal Election, 29 percent of candidates are female (a growth compared to 25.8 percent in the 2013 federal election)
Statistics have shown that the number of women in German politics has been increasing but it is still below parity.
Despite the fact, that the amount of women in German politics is above OECD’s average, there is still place for improvement in that matter. The Inter-Parliamentary Union Index places Germany on the 21^st place behind countries such as France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Left wing and libertarian parties tend to have more female members in Germany
The left wing Die Linke and the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland are the two parties with the highest amount of foreign born candidates
AfD also happens to be the party with the lowest number of female candidates and the only party which noted a decrease in female candidates in comparison with the 2013 federal elections. Within the Green Party nearly every second candidate is female.
There is a clear tendency for German right wing parties to have less female candidates and there is a strong variation across parties. There is also regional variation as in Germany every voter has two votes – one to choose among direct candidates from their electoral districts and one to choose among party lists. In the former GDR (East Germany) the CDU/CSU has a high share of female candidates including Angela Merkel. In Southern Germany the share is below 20 percent

The election forecast for the 22 September 2017 projected that on the 24 September the CDU/CSU will receive 36.2 percent of the votes, The Left 9.5 percent, Alliance 90/ The Greens 7.9 percent, FPD 9.3 percent and the AfD 10.2 percent. It is almost certain that a grand coalition (CDU/CSU and SPD) would have the majority of seats. Angela Merkel is very likely going to secure a fourth term as the leader of Germany.