The SPD top candidate can be celebrated on Sunday evening by the SPD leadership.
(Photo: AP)
Berlin The SPD won the federal election. According to the preliminary result, the Social Democrats with top candidate Olaf Scholz became the strongest party on Sunday. After 16 years in government of Chancellor Angela Merkel with Armin Laschet, the CDU / CSU fell to a record low. Nevertheless, on the evening of the election, not only Scholz but also Laschet claimed the contract to form a government for himself. Both are striving for a coalition with the Greens and the FDP. They want to talk to each other first.
According to the preliminary result, the SPD improves to 25.7 percent (2017: 20.5). It is thus creating a steep upswing; in early summer it was in third place in surveys with around 15 percent. The Union, on the other hand, is experiencing a historic debacle, it only comes to 24.1 percent (32.9).
With Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock, the Greens achieve their best result in the federal government to date, but remain below expectations with 14.8 percent (8.9). The FDP improves to 11.5 percent (10.7).
The AfD, so far in third place, only comes to 10.3 percent (12.6). In Thuringia and Saxony, however, it becomes the strongest party. In both countries, the AfD is in the sights of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in Thuringia it is classified as “definitely extremist” and has been observed since spring.
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The left slips to 4.9 percent (9.2). But since she defends three of her last five direct mandates, she can still move into the Bundestag according to her second vote result. That defines the basic mandate clause.
The majority in the Bundestag will change considerably. The distribution of seats looks like this: SPD 206 (2017: 153), CDU / CSU 196 (2017: 246), Greens 118 (67), FDP 92 (80), AfD 83 (94), Linke 39 (69). The Südschleswigsche Voters’ Association, as a party of the Danish minority exempted from the five percent hurdle, moves into the Bundestag with one member. The voter turnout of 76.6 percent was at the level of the previous election (76.2).
Result makes it difficult to form a government
Germany is now facing a difficult government formation. The only possible two-party alliance would be a new grand coalition, which neither the SPD nor the Union want. That is why there is likely to be a three-way alliance in the federal government for the first time since the 1950s.
Scholz sees a clear mandate for the SPD. But Laschet also wants to try, despite his defeat, to agree on a coalition with the Greens and the FDP.
In the evening, FDP leader Christian Lindner confirmed his preference for a coalition with the Union and the Greens. The formation of a Jamaica alliance, as governed in Schleswig-Holstein, failed in the federal government in 2017 due to the FDP. This time, the Greens are more likely to slow down. The differences between the Greens and the FDP are particularly large in financial and climate policy.
Lindner suggested that the Liberals meet with the Greens in advance to sound out overlaps and points of contention. Green leader Robert Habeck kept all options open to his party. You have “good chances of going strong in the next government,” he said.
For the Union, the result at the end of the Merkel era is a heavy blow – also for Söder, who had fought a violent power struggle with Laschet for the candidacy for chancellor in April. After counting all constituencies, the CSU falls to its worst result since 1949 in a federal election. It only reached 31.7 percent in Bavaria (2017: 38.8), which corresponds to 5.2 percent nationwide.
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