Who can vote in Germany's high-stakes state elections this September?

This September brings three state elections in Germany.

The first will be held in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6th. Then a couple weeks later on September 20th, elections will be held in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also in the city-state of Berlin.

With support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a record high in these states, the upcoming elections are being closely watched across the country, serving as something of a litmus test for Germany’s rightward shift.

Here’s a look at who can, and who cannot, cast a vote in these elections. 

In state-level elections (Landtagswahlen) in Germany, citizens elect the state parliament (Landtag). Voters can vote for both parties and local constituency candidates.

In Germany’s multi-party system it is rare that a single party wins an absolute majority of seats in parliament, so then parties must negotiate to form a coalition and draft a coalition agreement.

When a governing coalition is formed, the parliament holds a formal vote to elect the state’s next leader, here called a ‘Minister-President’.

Regular state elections are held in each German state every five years.

Who gets to vote in German state elections?

Just as in federal elections in Germany, only citizens can vote in state elections.

This means that all foreign residents are excluded from voting at the state level. Foreigners who have naturalised as German, however, may then vote in the state that they live (and are registered) in.

Additionally, voters need to be at least 18 years old to vote in many states, including Saxony-Anhalt; or at least 16 years old in some, including Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin.

How many can't vote?

With more than 12 million foreign nationals living in Germany, the number of people excluded from voting in German states based on their citizenship is substantial.

As of the end of 2025, Berlin was home to more than 800,000 foreign residents, according to Germany's statistics office. That's equivalent to 22.5 percent of the city's entire population, meaning that nearly one in four Berlin residents is excluded from voting in the coming election.

At the same time Saxony-Anhalt was home to nearly 170,000 foreign residents, equating roughly 8 percent of the state's population, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had just over 100,000 residents, equating 6.5 percent of the population.

Note that the above figures represent total numbers of foreign residents, some of whom would not yet be of voting age.

And in local elections?

The rules are different in local or municipal elections, where foreign EU-citizens can participate. 

EU citizens’ right to participate in local elections is guaranteed in the German constitution under Article 28 of the Basic Law, which was introduced following the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht.

Local or municipal elections are separate from state elections, but they sometimes occur simultaneously. 

There is no shortage of election posters in Berlin in the run-up to the election on September 20th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Kalaene

For example, Berlin is having both a state election and a local election on September 20th. So German citizens resident in Berlin can vote to elect the city-state’s House of Representatives, and on the same date all resident EU citizens over the age of 16 can vote in district assembly (known as Bezirksverordnetenversammlung, or BVV) elections.

Each of Berlin’s 12 districts has its own assembly, which exercises significant control over neighbourhood policy and local spending, but does not have the power to enact laws.

READ ALSO: Six smaller parties running in Berlin's state and local elections 

The other city states of Hamburg and Bremen have a similar district assembly system.

Notably, some cities and regions in Germany do offer other ways for foreign residents to participate in local politics. For example, in North-Rhine Westphalia cities with more than 5,000 foreign residents each elect an Advisory Board for Integration, whose members sit on local councils and advise local politicians about how to better serve foreign communities.

Strict voting requirements

Germany maintains tighter voting laws than many EU countries. All EU countries limit participation in federal elections strictly to their own citizens, but some other countries extend more voting rights to their foreign residents.

In Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, for example, all foreign nationals who have lived in the country for several years are permitted to vote in local and regional elections.

Tony Venables, founder of European Citizens’ Rights, Involvement and Trust (ECIT), which advocates for voting rights for mobile EU citizens, told The Local that Germany’s limits on who gets to vote are outdated.

“How come we allow EU citizens to vote in local elections, but not fellow Turks or Moroccans or Canadians who are in the same situation?” Venables asks.

He added, “About half the EU countries have done that.”

READ ALSO: Reader question - Why can't I vote in the German election when I pay taxes? 

Will foreign residents ever get to vote in Germany?

Until now, the debate around expanding voting rights in Germany begins and ends with the verdict of a 1990 court ruling. 

Both Hamburg and the state of Schleswig-Holstein had tried to expand municipal voting rights to long-term foreign residents way back in 1989. But the following year the Federal Constitutional Court ruled against them, saying that in Basic Law the electorate, or "the people", referred strictly to German nationals.

Since then just one major exception has been made, to allow foreign EU citizens to vote at the local level, in accordance with the aforementioned Treaty of Maastricht.

Further reform would require a constitutional amendment, which requires significant political will.

Dr. Tobias Spöri, senior research fellow at d|part, a think tank promoting political participation, told The Local that it's easier to change citizenship rules than to extend voting rights to non-citizens.

A change to citizenship rule “operates within an established legal framework and can be framed as rewarding integration,” Spöri said. “Extending voting rights to non-citizens, by contrast, touches on more fundamental questions of national sovereignty and political identity, which tend to trigger much stronger opposition.”

Among Germany’s mainstream parties, only the Left (Die Linke) consistently advocates expanding voting rights to all long-term residents at both state and federal levels. The Greens and the Social Democrats (SPD) have also voiced support for expanding voting rights, at least at the local level.