Inside Germany: Poll surprises, election TikTok and the benefits of immigration

Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might've missed. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Germans (finally!) go to the polls

After turbulent weeks on the campaign trail, things are about to take a leap forward. 

On Sunday February 23rd, more than 50 million Germans will cast their ballot in snap parliamentary elections. The vote is happening months earlier than originally planned after the previous 'traffic light' coalition collapsed in November.

READ ALSO: The ultimate guide to the German election 

We'll find out shortly after 6pm in the initial exit polls which parties are on course to do well. 

Surveys have been telling us so far that the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are likely to get the most votes, meaning Friedrich Merz could well become Germany's next chancellor. But it's all to play for - perhaps there will be some surprises come election day.

In fact, polls released on Thursday evening showed the race may be more unpredictable than we thought.

"We are measuring changes in many places," said election expert Stefan Leifert from German broadcaster ZDF.

In the ZDF's ‘Politbarometer Extra’ the CDU/CSU scored 28 percent of the vote, two percentage points less than before. Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained one point, reaching 21 percent. 

The position of the Social Democrats (16 percent) and Greens (14 percent) remained unchanged.

The Left Party (Die Linke) was, however, in a much better spot. The party improved by a further point to eight percent and is therefore likely to be represented in the new German parliament. 

All other parties may miss out on a place in parliament as polls say they are set to receive less than the five percent threshold needed. 

All of that said, there will still be a long wait ahead - peppered with lots of negotiations - until Germany gets a new government. 

In a recent interview, Merz said he wanted political allies to get their act together quickly, and hoped to get a coalition agreement hashed out by Easter (that's in mid April this year). 

That may be ambitious. As news wire AFP noted this week, after the 2021 election, Olaf Scholz, of the SPD, needed 10 weeks from polling day to form his coalition government with the Greens and the FDP.

But the time span was "within the usual range", Uwe Jun, political science professor at Trier University, told AFP.

The longest wait came in 2017, when it took Angela Merkel's conservatives some six months to forge a 'grand coalition' nicknamed 'GroKo' with the SPD.

"Merkel's initial attempt at a coalition with the Greens and FDP spectacularly failed, prolonging the wait," reported AFP. 

Politicians up their game on TikTok

Speaking of the election, social media is a key part of campaigning - especially when it comes to connecting with the younger generation. 

Both the far-right AfD and the far-left Die Linke are the parties that seem to be seeing the most engagement on TikTok.

Since December 7th 2024, TikTok posts by Die Linke have had more than 123 million views on around 1,560 posts (as of February 18th 2025), according to SPARTA, an analysis tool from the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich.

In the same period, the AfD collected 137 million views on just under 4,800 posts.

In terms of likes (that is active positive approval of the post by users) Die Linke is clearly in the lead with more than 15.7 million likes for its posts. The AfD collected slightly more than 11.5 million likes in the same period with more posts.

According to Bernd Zywietz, Head of Political Extremism at Jugendschutz.net in Mainz, the people behind the accounts of these two parties have obviously understood how the platform works better than others. "They film themselves, are personal and close, which creates a more intimate form of communication," he told broadcaster SWR.

But current Chancellor Olaf Scholz's team seem to be doing a robust job. In a video with more than 3.9 million views called 'Olaf Scholz mentality', the chancellor is seen making comments like "I'm a feminist" and calling out his rival Merz. The top comment that had received more 25.6k likes at the time of writing said: "So this marketing team is really cooking."

Of course, there has also been lots of disinformation flying around online.

We reported this week how Cyabra, which works with businesses to identify disinformation campaigns online, had uncovered more than 1,000 fake social media accounts that promoted pro-AfD narratives and undermined other parties.

Appreciating people with a migration background

I was delighted to hear from employees at a Darmstadt hospital this week after a video staff made highlighting how much they rely on immigration went viral on social media.

In the video around 40 employees of Darmstadt Klinikum, in Hesse, stand on a staircase. As the number of staff dwindles, it becomes clear that the hospital would not survive without migration. 

The short clip, which is part of a wider trend by hospitals and businesses across Germany, had this message: "When you vote on February 23rd, vote for humanity."

It gathered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes in just a few days.

A spokeswoman for the hospital's communications team told The Local: "Diversity is an important topic for us and a lived reality."

It comes after anti-immigrant rhetoric has been ramping up throughout this election campaign.

These kinds of messages showing the positive impact of people from abroad or of a migration background are important. And they highlight that Germany needs immigrants in its society, especially with growing gaps in the labour market.