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Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has claimed the right to lead coalition talks for a new government in Berlin after a narrow victory on Sunday’s federal election.
Final results early on Monday morning saw the centre-left party finish on 25.7 per cent, 1.6 points ahead of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The CDU suffered a historic disaster on Sunday in its first outing without Angela Merkel, losing almost nine percentage points to land on 24.1 per cent.
The Green Party secured its best-ever result on 14.8 per cent while the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) claimed 11.5 per cent. Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) slid from first to fourth place in the opposition benches with 10.3 per cent. The hard left Linke will have no parliamentary party with 4.9 per cent, below the five per cent parliamentary hurdle, but will have three direct MPs in the new Bundestag.
Special arrangements for these and other directly-elected MPs means Germany’s next parliament will have a record 735 seats – 137 more than the regular number.
Political leaders of all parties gather in Berlin on Monday morning to sort through the results and plot their course from the ballot box to the government benches.

Armin Laschet, federal chairman of the CDU and top candidate of his party for chancellor waves as he returns to Konrad Adenauer House after a TV appearance in Berlin on Sunday. Photograph: AP


No winning party in a German national election had previously taken less than 31 per cent of the vote.
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 CDU/CSU said it too would reach out to smaller parties to discuss forming a government, while Ms Merkel stays on in a caretaker role until a successor is sworn in.
Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, who outmanoeuvred a more popular rival to secure the nomination of Ms Merkel’s CDU/CSU, 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,” Mr 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 Ms Merkel departing after 16 years in power, “no one had an incumbent bonus in this election”.
Mr 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 modernizes our country.”
Both Mr Laschet and Mr 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.
The Greens traditionally lean toward the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats toward the Union, but neither ruled out going the other way.
The other option was a repeat of the outgoing “grand coalition” of the Union and Social Democrats that has run Germany for 12 of Ms Merkel’s 16 years in power, but there was little obvious appetite for that after years of government squabbling.

The co-leader of Germany’s Green party (Die Gruenen) and the party’s candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock and co-leader Robert Habeck speak at their electoral party in Berlin after estimates were broadcast on TV. Photograph: Getty Images


Mr Laschet said: “Everyone thinks that ... this ‘grand coalition’ isn’t promising for the future, regardless of who is No 1 and No 2. We need a real new beginning.”
The Free Democrats’ leader, Christian Lindner, appeared keen to govern, suggesting that 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,” Mr Lindner said in a post-election debate with all parties’ leaders on public broadcaster ZDF.
“So it might be advisable ... that the Greens and Free Democrats first speak to each other to structure everything that follows.”
While the Greens improved their support from the last election in 2017, they had higher expectations for Sunday’s vote.
The Left Party was projected to win only 4.9 per cent of the vote and risked being kicked out of parliament entirely.
The far-right Alternative for Germany — which no one else wants to work with — received 10.3 per cent. This was about 2 percentage points less than in 2017, when it first entered parliament.
For the first time since 1949, the Danish minority party SSW was set to win a seat in parliament, officials said.
Whichever parties form the next German government, Mr Lindner said it was “good news” that it would have a majority with centrist parties.
He said: “All of those in Europe and beyond who were worried about Germany’s stability can now see: Germany will be stable in any case.” – PA