Editing Politics of Germany (section)

=== 2017–2021 ===
{{main article|2017 German federal election}}

The 19th federal elections in Germany took place on 24 September 2017. The two big parties, the conservative parliamentary group [[CDU/CSU]] and the social democrat [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] were in a similar situation as in 2009, after the last grand coalition had ended, and both had suffered severe losses; reaching their second worst and worst result respectively in 2017.<ref>{{cite news |title=German election: Merkel wins fourth term, AfD nationalists rise |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41376577 |work=BBC News |date=25 September 2017}}</ref>

Many votes in the 2017 elections went to smaller parties, leading the right-wing populist party [[Alternative for Germany|AfD]] (Alternative for Germany) into the [[Bundestag]] which marked a big shift in German politics since it was the first far-right party to win seats in parliament since the 1950s.

With Merkel's candidacy for a fourth term, the CDU/CSU only reached 33.0% of the votes, but won the highest number of seats, leaving no realistic coalition option without the CDU/CSU. As all parties in the Bundestag strictly ruled out a coalition with the AfD, the only options for a majority coalition were a so-called "Jamaican" coalition (CDU/CSU, [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|FDP]], [[Alliance 90/The Greens|Greens]]; named after the party colors resembling those of the Jamaican flag) and a grand coalition with the SPD, which was at first opposed by the Social Democrats and their leader [[Martin Schulz]].<ref>{{cite news |title=SPD's Martin Schulz under pressure to reconsider grand coalition with Angela Merkel |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/spd-martin-schulz-under-pressure-to-reconsider-grand-coalition-with-angela-merkel/ |work=POLITICO |date=22 November 2017}}</ref>

Coalition talks between the three parties of the "Jamaican" coalition were held but the final proposal was rejected by the liberals of the FDP, leaving the government in limbo.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/nov/20/markets-rattled-euro-dax-bunds-german-coalition-talks-collapse-business-live|title=Markets rattled as German coalition talks collapse – business live|last=Wearden|first=Graeme|date=2017-11-20|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-11-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/sep/24/german-elections-2017-angela-merkel-cdu-spd-afd-live-updates|title=German elections 2017: Angela Merkel wins fourth term but AfD makes gains – as it happened|last=Henley|first=Jon|date=2017-09-24|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-09-25}}</ref> Following the unprecedented situation, for the first time in German history different minority coalitions or even direct snap coalitions were also heavily discussed. At this point, [[President of Germany|Federal President]] [[Frank-Walter Steinmeier|Steinmeier]] invited leaders of all parties for talks about a government, being the first president in the history of the Federal Republic to do so.

Official coalition talks between CDU/CSU and SPD started in January 2018 and led to a renewal of the grand coalition on 12 March 2018 as well as the subsequent re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2018-03/grosse-koalition-union-und-spd-unterschreiben-koalitionsvertrag|title=Union und SPD unterschreiben Koalitionsvertrag|date=12 March 2018|newspaper=Die Zeit|access-date=16 April 2018}}</ref>