The federal election will take place on February 23, 2025. Saxony’s universities —together with many other political and civil society organizations—are calling on all members and affiliates to exercise their right to vote and cast their ballots this coming Sunday.

Our democracy as a political system is, on the whole, no less a matter of course than the freedom to cast one’s vote in a secret ballot according to one’s own ideas, interests, and assessment of the organizations and individuals running for office. Together with all other votes cast by the electorate, your vote will determine the composition of the new Bundestag, the Federal Republic’s key legislative and democratic oversight body.

Just how far from a given a liberal-democratic electoral system and corresponding electoral practices are is evident not only from the recent past—including the undemocratic elections in the GDR—but also from the many authoritarian regimes of the present that lack free elections or feature significant restrictions or manipulation of the right to a free and secret ballot. The examples range from Afghanistan to Turkey to Russia.

No one is required to vote in the Federal Republic of Germany—but he or she is free to do so, freely and in secret, without having to fear any disadvantages as a result of casting a ballot. Elections are and remain central elements of the democratic process, whose legitimacy and political functionality depend on a high voter turnout.

Anyone who still needs help deciding how to vote can use the Election-O-Mat from the Federal Agency for Civic Education.

The State Rectors’ Conference and the University Executive Board of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences urge all eligible voters at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences to exercise their right to vote in the Bundestag election on February 23, 2025.

The University Executive Board