Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have won 25.7% of the vote, according to the preliminary results of the German election.
However, Angela Merkel’s conservatives have suffered their worst postwar result.
The center-left Social Democrats will now lead a coalition negotiations with party leader Olaf Scholz claiming a “clear mandate” to form the government for the first time since 2005.
With neither main group commanding a majority, both parties say they are ready to form the next coalition.
Negotiations could take months, and the SPD may take the first chance to form a government.
“We are ahead in all the surveys now,” Scholz, the SDP’s chancellor candidate and the outgoing vice-chancellor and finance minister, said in a roundtable discussion with other candidates after the vote.
“It is an encouraging message and a clear mandate to make sure that we get a good, pragmatic government for Germany,” he added after earlier addressing jubilant SPD supporters.
The Greens, who made their first bid for the chancellery with co-leader Annalena Baerbock, improved on their performance in 2017.
Baerbock insisted that “the climate crisis … is the leading issue of the next government, and that is for us the basis for any talks … even if we aren’t totally satisfied with our result.”
However, the two parties were not in contention to join the next government.
The government formation will take weeks, if not months, of heated negotiations.
More than 60 million people have voted vote in the September 26 election which will decide which party’s chancellor candidate will replace Angela Merkel as she steps down after 16 years in office.
