Social media posts confuse Germany’s 2024 EU election results with recent federal election

A map of Germany’s 2024 European Parliament election results is being shared in social media posts, with the suggestion it shows how the country voted in its recent federal election. While there are similarities between the overall results of these two elections, there are some important differences, such as the area boundaries and the performance of certain parties. 

The map being shared on social media shows south and west areas of the country coloured almost entirely black indicating wins for the CDU/CSU (this is a union between sister parties Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, the latter of which only stands in Bavaria), while the north east is mostly blue for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Overlaid text says (translated by Google): “Party with the highest share of votes in the districts and independent cities”. 

Posts shared on the 23 February have captions including: “This is Germany's election results map”, and “It displays the election results in Germany.”

The image was shared on X by Naomi Seibt—a German political influencer—on the day of Germany’s federal election on 23 February 2025. Her post said: “Why did East Germany predominantly vote for the AfD? Remember the Berlin Wall. Because they have experience with socialism. And they never ever want to suffer the horrors of Marxist tyranny again.” 

This refers to the map’s resemblance to those showing the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and German Democratic Republic (East Germany) before their reunification in 1990. Several posts share screenshots of Ms Seibt’s post.

But the map being shared on social media actually shows Germany’s final results for the European Parliament election in June 2024, not the recent federal election, as comments on the posts suggest some people may have thought. 

Text at the bottom of the map credits it to the German press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). A spokesperson for dpa confirmed to Full Fact that the map shows results of the 2024 European election.

A map showing the provisional results of the second vote in the recent federal election does look similar to the EU election map. Both show the CDU/CSU winning in most of the west and south areas of the country, with the AfD taking the north east (with the exception of Berlin and some surrounding areas). But there are some important distinctions between the two maps. 

Firstly, the boundaries in the European Parliament results map are based on voting in 400 districts, whereas the boundaries shown in the federal election map are according to 299 constituencies. This makes it difficult to compare the specific details of each map, but certain areas clearly show different outcomes in the two elections. 

For example, the departing chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, the Social Democrats (SPD), won in more constituencies in the recent federal election than in districts in the EU election. Whereas the Green party won in more districts in the 2024 European election than constituencies in the 2025 federal election. 

The AfD also won some western areas of Germany in the federal election, such as Kaiserslautern, which were mostly won by the CDU in the European election. 

It’s important that people take care to provide the full context for data or images they share online to ensure they are not confusing or potentially misleading people. You can find more of our work relating to European politics on our website.