German Social Democrats beat conservatives in vote to decide Merkel successor
Germany's Social Democrats narrowly won Sunday's national election, projected results showed, and claimed a "clear mandate" to lead a government for the first time since 2005 and to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under Angela Merkel.
The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 26.0% of the vote, ahead of 24.5% for Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc, projections for broadcaster ZDF showed, but both groups believed they could lead the next government.
With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward "grand coalition" of the past four years, the most likely outcome is a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel's conservatives.
Agreeing a new coalition could take months, and will likely involve the smaller Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
At: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germans-vote-close-election-decide-merkel-successor-2021-09-25/
Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Olaf Scholz waves at supporters after an exit poll gave him hopes of forming a government as Chancellor.
The SPD, which was last in power in 2005, boosted its share of the vote by 5.3 points to 25.8% - besting longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU Union, which saw its share drop by 8.8 points to 24.1%.
Germany's leftward shift was also seen in the second-tier parties: the Greens jumped by 5.7 points (to 14.6%), while the far-right AfD slipped 2.1 points (to 10.5%).
= new reply since forum marked as read
