Grand coalition (Germany) in the context of "List of political parties in Germany"

The Merz cabinet (German: Kabinett Merz, pronounced [kabiˈnɛt ˈmɛʁts]) is the 25th and current Government of the Federal Republic of Germany during the 21st legislative session of the Bundestag. It succeeded the previous cabinet led by Olaf Scholz. The cabinet is led by Friedrich Merz.

The cabinet is composed of Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister-party Christian Social Union (CSU) (which form the CDU/CSU alliance; the so called Union) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). It is the fifth time a governing coalition between Union and SPD has been formed in post-war German history and the first since the Fourth Merkel cabinet led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018.

A federal election was held on 22 September to elect the members of the 18th Bundestag of Germany. At stake were all 598 seats to the Bundestag, plus 33 overhang seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CDU/CSU) of incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel won their best result since 1990 with nearly 42% of the vote and nearly 50% of the seats, just five short for an overall majority. The co-governing Free Democratic Party (FDP) failed to meet the 5% vote electoral threshold in what was their worst showing ever in a federal election at the time, the electoral wipeout denying them seats in the Bundestag for the first time in their history.

As the CDU/CSU's narrowly missed a majority, and the FDP failed to get any seats, any prospective government was required to be a new coalition. The only possible coalition government excluding the CDU/CSU would have been an all-left-wing red–red–green coalition, since a red–green alliance, similar to the German government between 1998 and 2005, would not have enough seats for a majority. Both the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens ruled out governing with The Left that had ruled former East Germany. Ultimately, Merkel's party reached a coalition agreement with the then-main opposition party, the SPD, to form another grand coalition, the third in the country's history since World War II. The SPD leadership conducted a ratification vote by their broader membership before the agreement was made final. This grand coalition was renewed after the 2017 German federal election due to failure during the negotiations of a Jamaica coalition.

A federal election was held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, chose not to run again, marking the first time that an incumbent Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany did not seek re-election.

With 25.7% of total votes, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) recorded their best result since 2005, and emerged as the largest party for the first time since 2002. The ruling CDU/CSU, which had led a grand coalition with the SPD since 2013, recorded their worst ever result with 24.1%, a significant decline from 32.9% in 2017. Alliance 90/The Greens achieved their best result in history at 14.7%, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) made small gains and finished on 11.4%. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) fell from third to fifth place with 10.4%, a decline of 2.3 percentage points. The Left suffered their worst showing since their official formation in 2007, failing to cross the 5% electoral threshold by just over one-tenth of a percentage point. The party was nonetheless entitled to full proportional representation, as it won three direct mandates. The South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW) was exempt from the 5% threshold and won 1 seat, the first time it held national representation since 1949.