Germany’s Social Democrats secure narrow win in end-of-era election

Berlin: Germany's centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) will begin negotiations to form a ruling coalition after preliminary results showed the party narrowly winning the largest share of parliamentary seats in yesterday's federal election.

As per preliminary results, the SPD on track for 26.0% of the vote, ahead of 24.1% for Merkel’s CDU-CSU conservatives, the worst by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 70 years. While, figures on the election commission’s website showed the Green party came third with 14.8%.

Negotiations could take months, and the SPD is likely to be given the first chance to form a government.

However, an official announcement from the Federal Returning Officer is expected shortly.

Christian Lindner is leading the FDP since 2013 and will be the second kingmaker in Germany’s coalition negotiations.

The 42-year-old led its revival and return to parliament in 2017, but left coalition talks with Angela Merkel’s CDU, saying at the time, “It is better not to govern than to govern wrongly”.

The two parties attracted the most support from the under-30s, in an election dominated by climate change and by differing proposals on how to tackle it.

In addition, it is the first time that Germany is facing a three-way coalition, but this country has entered a new political era and the talking is yet to begin.