CNA explains: What’s at stake for Catholics in Germany’s 2025 election?

CNA Newsroom, Feb 21, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

As German voters prepare for federal elections on Feb. 23, the country’s Catholics find themselves navigating unprecedented divisions on issues that cut to the heart of Church teaching, from migration policy to gender ideology and the protection of life.

The elections come at a time when traditional party allegiances are being questioned and multiple Catholic voices are speaking with markedly different emphasis on key moral and social issues.

What do the current polls show?

Recent polls place the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) at around 30%, followed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at approximately 20%. The Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens are polling around 15% each, with the SPD holding a slight advantage. Other parties, including the FDP, the Left Party, and BSW face uncertainty about clearing the 5% threshold required for parliamentary representation.

How have Catholic organizations responded to party positions?

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) — the country’s most prominent lay Catholic organization — has strongly criticized the CDU’s recent “paradigm shift” on migration policy.

According to an analysis by the Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost using artificial intelligence tools, the ZdK’s political expectations show the strongest alignment with Green Party positions, particularly on “climate protection” and “social justice.”

While taking a more nuanced view, the ZdK’s positioning has drawn sharp criticism from prominent Catholic politician and former defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), who left the ZdK over its approach to migration policy and its tone in debates about the CDU’s proposed changes.

“One holds one’s own position as the only correct one,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, criticizing what she called an “apodictic and condemnatory” tone taken by the ZdK.

“When our society becomes increasingly polarized until people face each other irreconcilably, extremist forces have an easy game,” she warned.

What is the bishops’ position?

In an ecumenical statement released this month, Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, along with Protestant and Orthodox leaders called on voters to support parties “committed to our democracy.” The statement explicitly warned that “extremism and especially ethnic nationalism are incompatible with Christianity,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The German bishops’ conference has previously declared the AfD “unelectable” for Christians, citing the party’s “ethnic nationalism” ideology — a finding the party has categorically rejected, according to CNA Deutsch.

What are the key issues for Catholic voters?

Three major areas have emerged as particularly contentious:

Migration: CDU leader Friedrich Merz advocates for stronger border controls, while the bishops’ conference warns against compromising humanitarian obligations. A motion Merz introduced with AfD support has been called an “unforgivable mistake” by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of SPD. Meanwhile, the AfD calls for mass deportation of migrants.

Life issues: The CDU maintains support for Germany’s current abortion regulations as a “hard-won societal compromise,” while the SPD and Greens advocate for legalization. Germany currently permits abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with mandatory counseling at a state-approved center. The AfD calls for a “welcoming culture for children” while criticizing current policies.

Gender policy: Addressing a conference in Germany this week, just before the election, the Vatican’s doctrine chief delivered a pointed critique of gender ideology at a theological conference in Germany. The SPD and Greens support “gender mainstreaming” and changing family law to give various living arrangements and partnerships equal status. The CDU states it supports “diversity of sexual orientations” but rejects “gender as an ideological concept.”

The AfD says it wants to stop all subsidies for “research based on gender ideology.”