Germany’s Social Democrats have narrowly beaten outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, according to preliminary results.
Earlier today, election officials said the SPD had won 25.9% of the vote in a closely-fought race, beating Merkel’s Union bloc on 24.1%.
No winning party in Germany has ever won less than 31% of the vote.
The Greens got 14.6% of the vote, with the FDP on 11.5%. Both parties have suggested they will consider forming a three-way coalition Government with the SPD.
The SPD’s candidate Olaf Scholz, who is the outgoing vice chancellor, said the outcome was ‘a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany’.
Despite getting its worst-ever result in a federal contest, the Union bloc said it too would reach out to smaller parties to discuss forming a government.
In the meantime, Merkel, who is preparing to exit the political stage after 16 years, will stay on in a caretaker role until a successor is sworn in.
Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state who has taken over Merkel’s party, said they struggled to motivate their voter base and suffered a series of missteps.
‘Of course, this is a loss of votes that is not pretty,’ Mr Laschet said.
But he insisted they ‘will do everything we can to form a government under the Union’s leadership, because Germany now needs a coalition for the future that modernizes our country’.
Both Mr Laschet and Mr Scholz will now be courting the same two parties.
The Greens traditionally lean toward the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats toward the Union, but neither have ruled out going the other way.
The other option was a repeat of the outgoing ‘grand coalition’ of the Union and Social Democrats that has run Germany for 12 of Merkel’s 16 years in power.
But there was little obvious appetite for that after years of government squabbling.
Mr Laschet said: ‘Everyone thinks that… this “grand coalition” is not promising for the future, regardless of who is number one and number two. We need a real new beginning.’
The Free Democrats’ leader, Christian Lindner, appeared keen to govern, suggesting his party and the Greens should make the first move.
He said: ‘About 75% of Germans did not vote for the next chancellor’s party.
‘So it might be advisable… that the Greens and Free Democrats first speak to each other to structure everything that follows.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/3oaZW33
0 Comments