Germany Election: Angela Merkel’s Party Set To Leave Stage After 16 years

Berlin: The conservative-led rule in Germany under Angela Merkel is set to come to an end as the Social Democrats narrowly won the election on Sunday. The projected results showed and claimed a “clear mandate” for the Social Democrats to lead a government for the first time since 2005.

According to projections for broadcaster ZDF, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 26 per cent of votes, ahead of 24.5 per cent for Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc. Both groups though believed they could lead the next government.

With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their 4-year “grand coalition”, it is most likely that a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel’s conservatives may lead the government.

“We are ahead in all the surveys now,” the Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz, was quoted as saying in a round table discussion with other candidates by news agency Reuters after the vote.

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