Free Voters

The party originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations (Freie Wählergemeinschaften), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These associations are usually locally-organised groups of voters in the form of a registered association (eV). In most cases, Free Voters campaign only at local government level, standing for city councils and for mayoralties. Free Voters tend to achieve their most successful electoral results in rural areas of southern Germany, appealing most to conservative voters who prefer local decisions to party politics. Free Voter groups are active in all of the states of Germany.

Free Voters Freie Wähler
Abbreviation	FW
Chairman	Hubert Aiwanger
Deputy Chairpersons	Manfred Petry Gabi Schmidt Gregor Voht Engin Eroglu Denise Wendt
Federal Managing Director	Arnold Hansen
Federal Treasurer	Christa Hudyma
Founded	1965; 59 years ago (1965) (as Bundesverband) 24 January 2009 (2009-01-24) (as a party)
Headquarters	Mühlenstraße 13, Ganderkesee, Germany
Youth wing	Young Free Voters
Membership (2020)	6,225
Ideology	Regionalism Liberal conservatism
Political position	Centre-right
European affiliation	European Democratic Party
European Parliament group	Renew Europe
Colours	Orange   Azure
State parliaments	38 / 1,889
European Parliament	2 / 96
Website
www.freiewaehler.eu
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

In the 2008 Bavaria state election, the FW association obtained 10.2% of the vote and gained their first 20 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria. FW may have been helped by the presence in its list of Gabriele Pauli, a former member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). Others suggested that it was the other way round. Unlike in the other German states, the Free Voters of Bavaria have also contested state elections since 1998.^{[citation needed]} In the state election of 2013 FW repeated its success, gaining 19 seats.

In the 2014 European parliament elections in Germany, the Free Voters list received 1.46% of the national vote and returned a single MEP, Ulrike Müller, who sits with the ALDE Group. The federal Free Voters association joined the European Democratic Party in October 2015.

In June 2017, Arne Gericke, who sits with European Parliament's European Conservatives and Reformists group and was elected in 2014 on the Family Party of Germany list, joined the federal association. Gericke left it 15 months afterward for Alliance C – Christians for Germany.

In the 2018 Bavarian state election, the Free Voters won a record 27 seats, entering into a coalition government as junior partner to the CSU.

Following the 2019 European Parliament election in Germany, the Free Voters sit in the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament with two MEPs.

In the European Committee of the Regions, the Free Voters sit in the Renew Europe CoR group with one alternate member for the 2020–2025 mandate.

In the 2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, the FW entered the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time, amassing 5.4% of the vote and six seats.

The Free Voters are a conservative party, supporting devolving more power to the local level. The party is in opposition to the European Union's financial policies.

Ideologically, on the political spectrum, it has been described by some sources as being between the Free Democratic Party and the Party of Bible-abiding Christians, and by others as between the Christian Social Union and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Europe Elects described it as centrist. Politico has described the party as conservative and right-wing, noting the similarities between their rhetoric and the statements of the AfD.

 

The Free Voters do not contest state elections in Brandenburg due to the close cooperation with the BVB/Free Voters, who only compete in the state elections in Brandenburg.

State parliament	Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
Baden-Württemberg	2021	146,259	3.0 (#6)	0 / 154	0	Extra-parliamentary
Bavaria	2023	2,163,353	15.8 (#2)	37 / 205	10	CSU–FW
Berlin	2023	3,923	0.26 (#16)	0 / 160	0	Extra-parliamentary
Bremen	2019	14,205	1.0 (#9)	0 / 84	0	Extra-parliamentary
Hamburg	2020	16,357	0.4 (#?)	0 / 123	0	Extra-parliamentary
Hesse	2018	85,465	3.0 (#6)	0 / 137	0	Extra-parliamentary
Lower Saxony	2022	30,453	0.8 (#10)	0 / 137	0	Extra-parliamentary
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	2021	10,075	1.1 (#9)	0 / 71	0	Extra-parliamentary
North Rhine-Westphalia	2022	49,985	0.7 (#10)	0 / 199	0	Extra-parliamentary
Rhineland-Palatinate	2021	103,619	5.4 (#6)	6 / 101	6	Opposition
Saarland	2022	7,636	1.7 (#9)	0 / 51	0	Extra-parliamentary
Saxony	2019	72,897	3.4 (#7)	0 / 119	0	Extra-parliamentary
Saxony-Anhalt	2021	33,288	3.1 (#7)	0 / 97	0	Extra-parliamentary
Schleswig-Holstein	2022	8,190	0.6 (#11)	0 / 73	0	Extra-parliamentary
Thuringia	2019	n/a	-	0 / 90	0	Extra-parliamentary