Social Democrats narrowly beat right bloc in German elections

Berlin, September 27

Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) won the biggest share of the vote in a national election on Sunday, narrowly beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race that will determine who succeeds the long-time leader at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy.

The Social Democrats’ candidate Olaf Scholz, the outgoing vice chancellor and finance minister who pulled his party out of a years-long slump, 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, while Merkel stays on in a caretaker role until a successor is sworn in.

Election officials said on Monday that a count of all 299 constituencies showed the Social Democrats received 25.9 per cent of the vote, ahead of 24.1 per cent for the Union bloc. No winning party in a German national election had previously taken less than 31 per cent of the vote.

Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state who outmanoeuvered a more popular rival to secure the nomination of Merkel’s Union bloc, had struggled to motivate the party’s base and suffered a series of missteps.

“Of course, this is a loss of votes that isn’t pretty,” Laschet said of results that looked set to undercut by some measure the Union’s previous worst showing of 31 per cent in 1949. But he added that with Merkel departing after 16 years in power, “no one had an incumbent bonus in this election.” Laschet told supporters that “we will do everything we can to form a government under the Union’s leadership, because Germany now needs a coalition for the future that modernises our country”.

Both Laschet and Scholz will be courting the same two parties: the environmentalist Greens, who were third with 14.8 per cent; and the pro-business Free Democrats, who took 11.5 per cent of the vote. — AP