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German federal elections took place on September 18 , 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag , the federal parliament of Germany . They became necessary after a Motion Of Confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on July 1 . Following the defeat of Schröder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) in a state election, Schröder asked his supporters to abstain in the Bundestag motion in order that it fail and thus trigger an early federal election.

The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party in Bavaria , the Christian Social Union (CSU), started the federal election campaign with a 21% lead over the SPD in opinion polls. Many commentators expected the Christian Democrats to win a clear electoral victory and that CDU leader Angela Merkel would become Chancellor, forming a government with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and displacing the governing SPD- Green coalition. However, the CDU/CSU significantly lost momentum during the campaign and ultimately won only 1% more votes and four more seats than the SPD.

Exit polls showed clearly that neither coalition group had won a majority of seats in the Bundestag. Both parties lost seats compared to 2002 , as did the Greens, whilst only the Left Party (a partial successor of the Party Of Democratic Socialism led by Gregor Gysi and former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine ) made significant gains. Both Schröder and Merkel claimed victory, but the formation of a new government required careful negotiations. On October 10 2005 , officials from the SPD and the CDU/CSU indicated that negotiations between the two had concluded successfully and that the participating parties would form a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as Chancellor. 397 CDU/CSU and SPD Bundestag members duly voted for Merkel when the Bundestag met on November 22 .


RESULTS


Notes:
  • These figures constitute the final results published by the ''Bundeswahlleiter'' (Federal election officer).

  • 77.7% of voters cast ballots, down 1.4% from 2002 . This included a number of invalid votes as follows: 850,072 (1.8%) in the constituency section, 756,146 (1.6%) in the list section.

  • The CDU and the CSU sit together as one Caucus in the Bundestag and do not compete against each other. The CSU runs only in the state of Bavaria while the CDU competes in all other states.

  • These results include nine " Overhang Mandates " for the SPD and seven for the CDU.

  • These results compare the results for the Left. party with those of the PDS in 2002.

  • These results include the delayed result from the Dresden-I seat (see below).



LEAD CAMPAIGNERS


  Image:Angela Merkel CDUjpg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Angela_Merkel" class="copylinks">Angela Merkel ( CDU )
  Image:Edmund Stoiberjpg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Edmund_Stoiber" class="copylinks">Edmund Stoiber ( CSU )
  Image:Guido Westerwellejpg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Guido_Westerwelle" class="copylinks">Guido Westerwelle ( FDP )
  Image:Joschka Fischer 2002jpeg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Joschka_Fischer" class="copylinks">Joschka Fischer ( Green )
  Image:Gregor Gysi 2jpg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Gregor_Gysi" class="copylinks">Gregor Gysi ( Left Party )
  Image:Oskar Lafontainejpg "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Oskar_Lafontaine" class="copylinks">Oskar Lafontaine ( Left Party )