Germany’s president approves the date for next year’s national election

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s next national election has been set for Sept. 28, 2025. Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will run for a second term, but his party and the others in his three-party coalition have seen their popularity decline sharply as a result of constant infighting.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Friday that the head of state has signed off on the government’s recommendation and formally set the date of the election for the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The Bundestag then elects the chancellor, after weeks or sometimes months of coalition negotiations.

Scholz has run a three-party coalition of his center-left Social Democrats with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats since December 2021. The alliance, which brings together parties that weren’t traditionally allies, has become notorious for frequent infighting and on several occasions has reopened hard-fought policy agreements.

Last week, its leaders agreed on details of the 2025 budget, weeks after an initial deal got bogged down in a new dispute that further damaged the government’s image.

Elections to the European Parliament in June produced dismal results for the governing parties. They brought a clear win for the mainstream conservative opposition bloc, the Union, and a second-place finish for the far-right Alternative for Germany.

The Union, which led Germany for 16 years until 2021 under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, hasn’t yet chosen its challenger to Scholz in the 2025 election. It plans to do so after three state elections over the next month in the formerly communist east, a region in which Alternative for Germany is particularly strong.

Germany is the most populous member of the European Union and has Europe’s biggest economy.

Elections have to be held between 46 and 48 months after a parliamentary term begins. The last one was held on Sept. 26, 2021.