German election: narrow victory for centre-left SPD, as CDU polls historic low

Green Party achieve the best result in their party’s history, coming in third with 14.8% of the ballot and now are kingmakers in the forthcoming German government coalition

SPD leader Olaf Scholz. Photo: Björn Behrendt/SPD
SPD leader Olaf Scholz. Photo: Björn Behrendt/SPD

Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have narrowly won the country's federal elections, beating the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to preliminary results.

The SPD secured 25.7% of the vote, while the ruling conservative CDU/CSU bloc gained 24.1%.

The Greens achieved the best result in their party’s history, coming in third with 14.8% of the ballot.

A coalition must now be created to form a government.

SDP leader Olaf Scholz said his party had a clear mandate to rule, as his party started to edge into the lead.

The successor’s task is to lead Europe’s foremost economy over the next four years, with climate change at the top of voters’ agenda.

Scholz told a televised audience the voters had given him the job of forming a “good, pragmatic government for Germany”.

His conservative rival Armin Laschet hit back, arguing it was about forging a coalition, not about getting “an arithmetic majority”.

“Two maybe-chancellors and two kingmakers” was one of the headlines summing up Sunday night’s rather scrappy result, but that is what it looked like.

The two kingmakers are the Greens and the liberal, pro-business FDP, and they are open to offers.

Together the liberals and the Greens make up a quarter of the vote and could carry both of the big parties over the line.

They are more popular with voters under 30 than any of the main parties, but it would take some skill to bring them under the same roof.

Greens leader Annalena Baerbock wants to loosen Germany\s debt brake that stops a big jump in public debt. FDP leader Christian Lindner has little time for her party’s “ideas of tax hikes, of softening the debt brake”.

So of all the possible coalitions, the Greens and the liberals feature in the two that are most likely to form.

One is the so-called traffic-light coalition, made up of the parties’ colours - red (SPD), yellow (FDP) and the Greens - or there’s the Jamaica alternative, black (CDU), yellow (FDP) and the Greens.