Wybory do Bundestagu z 22 września 2013 roku – analiza i konsekwencje
Elections to the Bundestag of 22 September 2013 – Analysis and Consequences

Summary/Abstract: The author undertakes a detailed analysis of the election results and assesses them from the perspective of the German party system. The following issues are discussed: voting system, electoral campaign, election results and their implications. Although elections to the Bundestag of 22 September 2013 brought a success of the CDU
CSU, yet due to a marked defeat of the liberal FDP, German Christian Democratic Union was forced to seek a coalition partner on the left side of the political scene. After long negotiations a great coalition government of the CDU
CSU-SPD was appointed, with Angela Merkel once again as the head. The election caused extensive changes within the German party system. For the first time in the history of the FRG the liberal FDP did not win any seats in the parliament, whereas the considerable success of the newly created Alternative for Germany showed that a ‘‘single-topic party”, can within a short time span rock even such a stable political system as the German one. The elections shook the system formed between 2005-2012 which was made up of five parties and substituted it with a transitional system of 42 (four parties in the Bundestag: CDU
CSU, SPD, The Left and The Greens; plus two parties just below the electoral threshold: FDP and AfD). Since two parties were just below the electoral threshold, the 18th Bundestag is characterized by relatively low representativity (84.2% of voters). At the same time the 2013 election strengthened the position of the two great Volksparteien. Besides, analysis of the election results showed continued differences in the electoral preferences between the inhabitants of eastern and western Germany, and a traditionally strong attachment of the eldest voters (above 60 years of age) to both Volksparteien.

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