Editing Bundestag (section)

===Elections===
The Bundestag has an elective function for a number of offices.

====Chancellor====
The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag and formally appointed by the president of Germany. A chancellor's election is necessary whenever the office of chancellor has fallen vacant. This is the case if a newly elected Bundestag meets for the first time, or during legislative periods, if the former chancellor died or resigned.

The chancellor's election is one of the few cases in which a vote in the Bundestag requires a [[Chancellor majority|majority of all elected members]], not just a majority of those assembled at the time, the so-called ''Kanzlermehrheit'' ("chancellor majority"). As with other elections performed by the Bundestag, the chancellor is elected via secret ballot. The election procedure laid down in the Basic Law can be divided into three phases:<ref>Basic Law, Article 63.</ref> The process begins with the [[President of Germany]] proposing a candidate to the Bundestag (usually a candidate on which the majority party or the coalition parties have agreed to beforehand), who is then voted upon without debate ("1st voting phase"). If the nominee reaches the necessary "chancellor majority", the president appoints him or her and, after that, the president of the Bundestag will administer the oath of office before the assembled house. If this nominee is not elected, the right of nomination is transferred onto the Bundestag: Candidates can now be nominated for election, whereby a nomination must be supported by at least a quarter of all MPs. The Bundestag can hold any number of ballots in this manner for two weeks. To be elected, a candidate still needs a "chancellor majority" of yes-votes ("Second voting phase"). If the Bundestag is unable to elect a chancellor in these fourteen days, a final ballot is held on the very next day. Once again, candidates can be nominated by at least a quarter of all MPs. Candidates receiving a "chancellor majority" in this ballot are elected. Otherwise, it is up to the President of Germany either to appoint the candidate with the plurality of votes as Chancellor or to dissolve the Bundestag and call new elections ("Third voting phase").

Another possibility to vote a new chancellor into office is the [[constructive vote of no confidence]], which allows the Bundestag to replace a sitting chancellor, if it elects a new chancellor with the "chancellor-majority".

As of 2025, all chancellors of the federal republic have been (re-)elected on proposal of the President and on the first ballot with the exceptions of [[Helmut Kohl]], who was elected to his first term via a constructive vote of no confidence against [[Helmut Schmidt]] in 1982, and [[Friedrich Merz]], who was elected chancellor during the second voting phase (on the second ballot), after not having received the necessary majority on the first ballot in 2025.

====Judges of the federal constitutional court====
The Bundestag shares responsibility with the Bundesrat for electing the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court. Both chambers elect four judges to each of the court's two senates. They also elect the president and vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court in alternating order. In the Bundestag, this requires a two-thirds majority of members present, which has equal at least a majority of all members.

====Further elective functions====
In addition to these central elections, the Bundestag elects the President and Vice President of the Federal Audit Office, the Commissioner for the Armed Forces, the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, the Federal Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship, two-thirds of the members of the [[Joint Committee (Germany)|Joint Committee]] and half of the members of the Mediation Committee.

The Bundestag also has significant influence on the election of the [[President of Germany]]: All members of the Bundestag are ex officio members of the [[Federal Convention (Germany)|Federal Convention]], a non-permanent constitutional body whose sole task is to elect the president; however, the convention also includes state electors, elected by the [[State Parliament (Germany)|sixteen german state parliaments]]. The majority ratios in the Bundestag therefore do not necessarily have to correspond to those in the Federal Assembly.