Consumers: Federal election, solar power, AI – what will change in February

After the short election campaign, a new Bundestag will be elected on February 23rd. It is not yet clear who will be able to celebrate after the election, but it is a given that there will be fewer parliamentarians. What other changes will citizens face in February?

Because of the new electoral law, Parliament will be smaller – 630 seats are planned. Unlike previous elections, the so-called overhang and compensatory mandates will be eliminated in the election on February 23rd; the second vote result of a party is decisive for the number of seats.

Higher incomes for state employees

The state employees get more money. As part of the linear increase, salaries will increase by 5.5 percent. Trainees get 50 euros more per month.

Feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic systems are falling

A small change is coming to owners of solar systems. The remuneration for solar power that is fed into the power grid is reduced by one percent every six months for new systems. The next reduction will take place on February 1st. Owners of photovoltaic systems that are put into operation after February 1, 2025 will receive slightly less money if they supply electricity to the grid.

Short February – fewer working days

2025 is not a leap year, so there is no February 29th. According to the Federal Statistical Office, this is the main reason why there will be slightly fewer working days in 2025 than last year. To be more precise, the nationwide average is 248.1 working days, 0.7 fewer than in 2024.

What’s the deal with the leap year again? Because it takes the Earth exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 46 seconds to orbit the sun and the calendar can only consist of whole days, the excess time has to be compensated for somehow – with an extra day in February.

“Germany’s Next Top Model” twice a week

Heidi Klum begins the next season of her long-running TV series “Germany’s Next Top Model” on February 13th on ProSieben. The format is entering its 20th year. The special thing this time: “GNTM” is shown twice a week – on Tuesdays with male models and on Thursdays with female models.

Certain AI applications banned

As of February 2nd, the European Union’s AI Act bans certain types of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This affects, for example, apps that rate people based on certain characteristics, behaviors and characteristics, such as “social scoring” in China.