Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have edged into the lead over outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in national elections, according to projected results, as party leader Olaf Scholz claimed a “clear mandate” to form the government for the first time since 2005.
The SPD was on track for 26.0 percent of the vote, ahead of 24.5 percent for Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservatives, according to a Sunday projection by public broadcaster ZDF. The showing was the worst by the CDU in 70 years.
With neither main group commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward “grand coalition” of the past four years, the most likely outcome of the vote is a three-way coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats led by either the SPD or the CDU/CSU.
Negotiations could take months, and the SPD is likely to be given the first chance to form a government.
“We are ahead in all the surveys now,” Scholz, the SDP’s chancellor candidate and the outgoing vice chancellor and finance minister, said in a roundtable discussion with other candidates after the vote.
“It is an encouraging message and a clear mandate to make sure that we get a good, pragmatic government for Germany,” he added after earlier addressing jubilant SPD supporters.
Olaf Scholz, SPD candidate for Chancellor waves to his supporters after German parliament election at the party headquarters in Berlin [Michael Sohn/AP Photo]
Members and supporters of the Green Party (Die Gruenen) at a party event following he close of polling stations in Sunday’s election. The party looks on track to be the third largest in the Bundestag [Matthias Schrader/AP Photo]The Greens, who made their first bid for the chancellery with co-leader Annalena Baerbock, were in third, improving on their performance in 2017.
Baerbock insisted that “the climate crisis … is the leading issue of the next government, and that is for us the basis for any talks … even if we aren’t totally satisfied with our result.”
Two parties were not in contention to join the next government.
The Left Party was projected to win less than five percent of the vote and risked being kicked out of parliament entirely while the far-right Alternative for Germany, which no one else wants to work with, saw its vote share declining to about 10.6 percent – about 2 percentage points less than in 2017, when it first entered parliament.
