Germany election: Talks begin over new coalition after centre-left Social Democrats beat Merkel’s ruling CDU/CSU pact

Party leadership meeting of the SPD after German general elections, in Berlin
SPD leader Olaf Scholz holds a bouquet of flowers at a meeting of the party leadership the day after the election
REUTERS
Michael Howie27 September 2021

Germany’s Social Democrats were launching talks to form a new coalition government on Monday after scoring a narrow election victory over outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative party.

The centre-left SPD won 25.7 per cent of the vote across the 299 constituencies, compared with 24.1 per cent for Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc.

Led by Olaf Scholz, the SPD is likely to seek an alliance with potential “kingmakers” the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, which scored 14.8 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively.

But the smaller parties could also team up with the conservatives, leaving the make-up of the new government up in the air and the country potentially facing months of wrangling.

Mrs Merkel will remain in charge in a caretaker role during the coalition negotiations that will set the future course of Europe’s largest economy.

“The SPD is in first place. We won the election,” Lars Klingbeil, the party’s general secretary told ARD television on Monday, adding the party would fight to make sure Mr Scholz becomes the next chancellor.

The party’s leader said he hoped to strike a coalition deal before Christmas.

After the results came out, the outgoing vice chancellor and finance minister who pulled his party out of a years-long slump told a TV audience the result was “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany”.

His conservative rival, Armin Laschet, admitted the ruling bloc’s worst-ever result “isn’t pretty”.

But he vowed to fight on, added that with Ms Merkel departing after 16 years in power, “no one had an incumbent bonus in this election”.

The Greens traditionally lean toward the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats toward the CDU, but neither ruled out going the other way.

Greens leader Annalina Baerbock said the climate crisis would be the “basis for any talks...even if we aren’t totally satisfied with our result”.

Meanwhile the leader of the Free Democrats, Christian Lindner, suggested his party and the Greens should make the first move.

“About 75 per cent of Germans didn’t vote for the next chancellor’s party,” he said. “So it might be advisable ... that the Greens and Free Democrats first speak to each other to structure everything that follows.”

Another option is a repeat of the outgoing “grand coalition” of the Union and Social Democrats that has run Germany for 12 of Mrs Merkel’s years in power, but there appeared to be little appetite for that after years of government squabbling.

The far-right Alternative for Germany - who no-one wants to work with - received 10.3 per cent, about two points less than in 2017 when it first entered parliament.

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