The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has claimed a narrow win over the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) in the 2021 German federal election. SPD has won 206 seats and secured 25.7% of the vote while Merkel’s party was able to collect 24.1% of the vote by winning 196 seats.
Given that both the parties could not secure the minimum number of seats to form the government alone, all the discussions are upon the possible coalitions now. The other party vote percentages are as follows; Green 14.8% winning 118 seats, Free Democratic Party (FDP) 11.5% winning 92 seats, Alternative for Germany (AfD) 10.3% winning 83 seats, The Left 4.9% winning 39 seats and the others secured 8.7% of the votes and won one seat.
Merkel has been in power for the last 16 years and this can be seen as the end of her era though the successor is not on sight for now.
As per the reports, the SPD will be starting negotiations with others to form the government and it may take weeks or even months. Earlier in 2017, Merkel and her party took more than five months to form the government at last.
After the results, the SPD leader Olaf Scholz called it ‘a great success.‘ The 25.7% vote percentage is actually a great achievement for the party as they could secure only 20.5% in the 2017 election. Also this election’s outcome is the worst one for Merkel’s party ever in a national election.
“Many citizens have put their crosses next to the SPD because they want there to be a change in government and also because they want the next chancellor of this country to be called Olaf Scholz,” he said.
Scholz is also the outgoing vice chancellor and finance minister in Merkerl’s coalition government.
“Voters have spoken very clearly, they strengthened three parties — the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats — so this is the visible mandate the citizens of this country have given: these three parties should lead the next government.” Scholz added.