Voter migration: Only one party succeeded in retaining its supporters

Victory and loss are very close together in the federal election . Not all parties managed to enter the German Bundestag. In addition, hundreds of thousands, in some cases even several million voters, turned their backs on their party and gave their vote to the competition.

Which party lost the most ground? Who was able to convince the most non-voters? The extent to which preferences have shifted becomes clear when looking at the figures on voter migration. Only one party has managed to retain its voters in the long term - the AfD.

The AfD is ahead in mobilizing non-voters

Only 60,000 voters chose the newly founded BSW and against the AfD in this year's federal election. In addition, the Alternative for Germany received 20.8 percent; its best result to date at the federal level. In terms of mobilizing non-voters, the AfD is by far the leader with 1.8 million. A total of 100,000 former Green Party voters and 110,000 former Left Party voters opted for a complete political realignment and gave their vote to the AfD's candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel.

In contrast to the AfD, which was able to gain a good four million voters, the FDP's mobilization rate was zero. The Liberals not only missed out on a place in the German Bundestag, they also lost 100,000 voters to the Left, 890,000 voters to the AfD and more than 1.3 million voters to the Union. Around 40,000 voters who voted for the FDP in the last election did not even show up at the polling station this year.

The SPD was able to win over 120,000 FDP voters and 250,000 non-voters. A negligible gain compared to the 3.5 million voters who decided against the Social Democrats. The majority of them, 1.7 million, voted for the Union and thus elected Friedrich Merz as chancellor. An even more drastic political change was desired by 720,000 voters who switched from the SPD to the AfD. The Social Democrats achieved their worst election result since 1887 with 16.4 percent.

On the one hand, the Union emerged as the winner from the election, but with 28.5 percent it achieved its second-worst result since 1949. More than a million CDU voters moved to the right on the political spectrum and voted for the AfD. 220,000 voters switched to the BSW and 70,000 to the Left. The Union was able to make up for this loss with, among other things, 900,000 former non-voters and 400,000 Green voters.

Only one party did not lose a single vote

But Alliance 90/The Greens did not just lose voters to the Christian Democrats. The largest group, a total of 700,000 eligible voters, switched to the Left. When it came to mobilizing non-voters, the Greens performed the worst, with only 110,000, if the FDP is not taken into account in this calculation. But the Left does not only benefit from the Greens. More than half a million Social Democrats have slipped further to the left. The Left was able to convince a total of 290,000 former non-voters of itself and its top candidate Heidi Reichinnek.

Only one party has a zero on the side of lost votes - the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance. The youngest party, which ran for the first time this year, was able to win voters from all political camps. The largest influx of voters - 440,000 eligible voters - came from the SPD. Contrary to many people's expectations, however, only 60,000 AfD voters switched to the BSW . Nevertheless, the young party narrowly missed out on a place in the Bundestag with 4.9 percent.