Scholz and Laschet stake rival claims to lead Germany after knife-edge election
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The leaders of Germany’s two main parties both claimed to have won a mandate to form the country’s first post-Merkel government, after knife-edge national elections that failed to deliver a clear winner.
Armin Laschet, candidate of the CDU/CSU, and Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats each said they would consult other parties on forming a coalition.
Projections by Germany’s ARD broadcaster put the SPD in the lead on 25.7 per cent, the CDU in second place on 24.5 per cent, the Greens on 14.3 per cent and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) on 11.5 per cent.
The exceptionally close result suggests it could take time to determine who will govern Germany in the post-Merkel era with difficult coalition negotiations — involving a number of different parties — lying ahead.
“We will do everything we can to form a government under the leadership of the CDU/CSU,” Laschet told cheering supporters at the party’s headquarters in Berlin.
Laschet insisted he still had the right to explore coalition options even though the SPD appeared to have won more votes than the CDU/CSU. “It has not always been the case [in Germany] that the parties that were in first place provided the chancellor,” he said on TV.
But Scholz insisted he should lead coalition negotiations. “A lot of people put their cross by the SPD because they wanted a change of government and wanted the next chancellor of this country to be Olaf Scholz,” he said.
The preliminary results suggest Germany is set for a three-way coalition, the first in its recent history. Much depends on whether the smaller parties, the Greens and FDP, decide to team up with the CDU/CSU or the SPD.
Christian Lindner, leader of the FDP, said he thought his party would have “more in common, in policy terms” with a CDU/CSU-led government than with one led by the SPD.
But he also said it would make sense for the Greens and FDP to talk to each other first before consulting with the Social Democrats and the centre-right, “in order to structure everything that comes afterwards”.
Talks on a coalition will entail weeks and possibly months of wrangling as the parties try to overcome their many differences and stitch together a viable government.
“We are still in a phase of three-dimensional chess . . . It’s impossible to tell where this evening is going. There are even more possibilities than had widely been anticipated just a few days earlier,” said Christian Martin, a political scientist at the University of Kiel.
Sunday’s Bundestag election was the first in Germany’s postwar history when an incumbent chancellor was not standing for re-election, making the race one of the most volatile and unpredictable in living memory. The SPD, CDU/CSU and Greens have seen ten-point swings in their poll ratings since the start of the year.
“It was clear to us that without the benefit of incumbency it will be an open, hard and close election campaign, and that’s what happened,” said Laschet. “It is an exceptional situation.”
Merkel’s departure from power meant the millions of voters who had voted for her in past elections but had no strong allegiance to the CDU/CSU were up for grabs. That explained the huge drop in the party’s support: the party garnered 32.9 per cent in the 2017 election.
The Social Democrats had led opinion polls in the last two weeks of campaigning, but in recent days the CDU/CSU succeeded in eating away at their lead. Laschet warned repeatedly that a vote for the SPD would pave the way for a leftwing coalition between the Social Democrats, Greens and Die Linke, a hard-left party that wants to disband Nato.
Laschet was also helped by Merkel, who still has soaring approval ratings after 16 years in power.
The chancellor had previously said she would keep her campaign appearances to a minimum but changed her mind as the CDU/CSU’s poll numbers slumped. Pollsters said her stump speeches over the last week or so boosted Laschet.
Green chancellor-candidate Annalena Baerbock stressed that her party had won its “best ever result” in a parliamentary election. But she made it clear they were disappointed at falling short of the 18-20 per cent they had been striving for.
“We wanted more, but we didn’t achieve it, partly because of our own mistakes at the beginning of the campaign — my own mistakes,” she told supporters. “But we stand here tonight and say: This time it wasn’t enough, but we have a mission for the future.”
Additional reporting by Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt
