Nearly 60 million voters in Germany will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Bundestag, with Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) the largest voting bloc.
Reviving Europe's largest economy and tightening controls on immigration are the two main issues in focus ahead of the vote, which was due to take place later this year but was accelerated after the three-party coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz broke up last November.
However, Germany's electoral system is notoriously complex, making it difficult for many to process the results that emerge on election night.
This year, for the first time, the newly reformed electoral law will also come into force, which is intended to shrink the over-size Bundestag and brings subtle but potentially major changes to the distribution of seats in parliament.
How does the voting work?
Elections to the Bundestag are held every four years.
The elections are open to people over 18 years of age and the polls open between 8.00 and 18.00 local time, with many voters choosing to cast their vote by post before polling day.
Voters do not directly elect their Chancellor, but the outcome of the vote will ultimately determine who will govern and who will be given the job. The parties also put forward candidates for chancellor before the election.
There are two votes on each ballot paper.
The first voice or "Erststimme" is for a candidate who is standing in a constituency or electoral district - there are 299 of these across Germany. The candidate who receives the most votes in a given constituency wins one of the 630 seats in Parliament under the first-past-the-post system.
The second voice or "Zweitstimme" is intended for a political party standing for election in a federal state. This vote is considered to be the most important vote, as it determines how the seats in the Bundestag are divided between the parties on the basis of proportional representation.
What is the 5% clause?
However, there is a catch: the party cannot be represented in the Bundestag unless it gets 5 % votes in the second national vote or secures three directly elected candidates in the first vote.
In 2021, the Left Party narrowly made it into the Bundestag, despite not reaching the 5% threshold, but by securing three directly elected candidates in the district vote.
Rule 5 % is intended to prevent political fragmentation and legislative gridlock.
This year, three parties are hovering around the 5% threshold - the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), the Left Party and the Union of Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Whether they reach this threshold could have a decisive impact on the distribution of seats and influence efforts to form a majority coalition.
If the three parties fail to reach the 5% threshold, the likelihood of a two-party coalition could increase.
What are the so-called "overhanging chairs" and why are they being abolished?
In the past, additional seats in the Bundestag, so-called overhang seats, were created when a party won more directly elected candidates than the number of seats it secured in the second ballot. These additional seats are intended to accommodate these MPs and to 'even out' the distribution of seats in Parliament.
The so-called "Überhang" or "overhanging" mandate is one of the most controversial aspects of the German electoral system.
This means that the Bundestag has been growing in recent years and will reach a record 735 seats after the vote in 2021.
It also meant that past coalitions enjoyed a much more comfortable majority than if the overhanging mandate did not exist. This was the case in 2002, when the red-green coalition led by Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder benefited from the cushion of the mandate overhang.
In this election, a new electoral law will come into force for the first time, which removes the overhanging mandate.
It will limit the number of seats in the Bundestag to 630 and also means that some district winners could lose their seats if their party does not get enough votes.
How is the government formed?
Once the mandates have been allocated, the party groups will begin negotiations to form a majority coalition. This process can take weeks, if not months.
Coalition configurations are often nicknamed according to their party colours.
This time, the so-called grand coalition between the centre-right CDU/CSU and the centre-left SPD, the "Kenyan coalition" (CDU, SPD, Greens) and the "German coalition" (CDU, SPD, FDP) were all mentioned as possible.
How is the Chancellor elected?
The candidate for chancellor is proposed by the German president, currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier, usually in agreement with the coalition parties.
However, it is ultimately the Bundestag that decides who becomes head of the federal government, as the candidate for chancellor must receive the votes of a majority of the Bundestag before taking office.
If the candidate does not obtain a majority in the first round, a second round is held. If he or she is unsuccessful, the Bundestag has 14 days to elect another candidate for Chancellor.
Follow the German elections live on Euronews on Sunday 23 February at 17.30 CET.
euronews/ gnews.cz - RoZ
ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO - Xinhua
English 
Czech 
Spanish 
French 
Italian 
Russian 
Chinese 
German