Political Participation (April 2025)

The study on political participation was conducted by infratest dimap on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. During the survey period from April 2 to April 22, 2025, 2,078 eligible voters (including 521 non-voters, who were recruited disproportionately) were interviewed in 1,282 online interviews (CAWI) and 796 telephone interviews (CATI) on the following topics: Participation in the federal election and reasons for non-participation, experience of the federal election and trust in the electoral process, meaningful measures to increase voter turnout from the perspective of non-voters, role of political participation in comparison to other areas of life at this time, political and social engagement. Respondents were selected using a random sample (RDD method for telephone surveys, stratified random samples for online surveys). 1. Participation in elections: Type of participation in the 2025 federal election (by mail-in ballot, at the polling station, did not vote, was not yet eligible to vote); reasons for the decision not to participate in the federal election (prevented by illness or vacation, for example, this election did not involve a truly important decision, there was no party I wanted to vote for, I am not interested in politics, not sufficiently informed to make a voting decision, generally dissatisfied with politics, parties all seem the same on the whole, my vote has no influence on the election result, none of my family or friends vote, so I don´t either, elections are meaningless, citizens can´t make a difference with their vote anyway); reasons for deciding to participate in the federal election (voting is a civic duty and part of democracy, I wanted politics in Germany to change, I was convinced by a party´s election program, I was convinced by a party´s leading candidate, I wanted to support a representative in my constituency, I wanted to prevent certain parties from gaining too much influence over politics in Germany, my family or friends and acquaintances encouraged me to vote); participation in the penultimate federal election in 2021, frequency of participation in previous federal, European, state, and local elections; assessment of the current federal election law. 2. Political involvement: degree to which political decisions influence one´s own life; interest in local, state, and federal politics; political opinion leadership; interest in the campaign for the early federal election; awareness of the outcome of the federal election and coalition negotiations; frequency of use of social media and messenger services for information on political topics. 3. Political system: satisfaction with democracy; preference for representative democracy (citizens should decide on important political issues themselves, e.g., in referendums, vs. elected politicians should decide); threats to democracy in Germany; sources of threat; trust in the electoral process in the last federal election; extent to which voting was affected by the shorter deadlines for Germans living abroad; opinion on future online voting. 4. Other forms of participation and culture of debate: forms of political participation used (involvement in a citizens´ initiative/political party, participation in an election campaign event/demonstration, participation in a signature collection or petition, participation in a citizens´ or popular initiative, participation in a town hall meeting in the place of residence, participation in lectures or events on political topics); forms of online participation used (communicating with politicians on the internet, participating in an online event with politicians, participating in an online signature campaign or petition, posts or comments on a political topic on social networks); assessment of political effectiveness; evaluation of the culture of political debate. 5. Social engagement: current or former membership in a political party, trade union, sports or leisure club, cultural interest group, church congregation, or religious community; volunteer work in the last 12 months; party affiliation; life satisfaction; assessment of one´s own economic situation. Demography: age; sex; household size; number of children under 14 in the household; education: highest level of education attained or desired; employment status; migration background; parents´ migration background; net household income; internet usage. Additionally coded were: interview number; interview date; district; federal state; size of locality (political municipality size); weighting factors.