New elections to the German Bundestag shall be held no sooner than forty-six months and no later than forty-eight months after the electoral term begins. If the electoral term of the Bundestag is terminated prematurely, early elections have to be held within sixty days after the decision has been taken to dissolve the Bundestag (Article 39 (1) of the Basic Constitutional Law). So far there have been three early elections: in 1972, 1983 and 2005.

In accordance with Article 16 of the Federal Elections Act, the Federal President shall determine the day of the general election (election day), which must be a Sunday or statutory public holiday. The decision is usually taken several (about 8) months before the election.

As a rule, any European election is held within a period from Thursday to Sunday which shall be the same for all Member States to ensure that the different election traditions can be maintained in the Member States. As in Germany, most Member States hold elections on a Sunday or statutory public holiday.

The period in which the election is held should correspond to the respective period of the first European election of 1979, in the last year of the electoral period. The first European election took place from 7 to 10 June 1979. 

About six months before the election, the Federal Government shall specify the day on which the election is to take place.

The legislators in the Länder are solely responsible for combining elections to Länder parliaments with parliamentary elections at federal level (Bundestag or European elections). The Länder are free in laying down their own electoral legislation and thus in specifying the requirements for determining the election day. Therefore, it is their responsibility to check whether the principles of formal equality and equal opportunities of the competing nominating bodies may be impaired by the fact that different elections are held at the same time. In state practice, an act or ordinance of the Land minister of the interior to combine elections or a decree forms the basis for holding an election at Land level together with elections to the Bundestag or the European Parliament. Until after the 2009 Bundestag and European Elections, elections to Länder parliaments have been held at the same time as Bundestag elections in nine instances, and in only one case the election to a Land parliament was combined with a European election.

For further details on the election date of the 2009 European Election and the 2009 Bundestag Election please refer to the general information on the 2009 European Election or the general information on the 2009 Bundestag Election 2009 on the website of the Federal Returning Officer.

Legal bases