Germany's Social Democrats narrowly defeat Angela Merkel's party, according to preliminary results
BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats posted their worst-ever election results on Sunday, coming in second to their traditional center-left rival for the first time in a decade and a half as parties prepare for what could be weeks of rocky talks to make a government.
With all 299 districts reporting, the center-right conservatives that have dominated Germany's postwar leadership had just 24 percent of the vote, according to preliminary numbers. That's the lowest mark for the storied party since its founding in 1945.
The center-left Social Democrats, who ran a steady campaign under Olaf Scholz, won 26 percent, a turnaround for the party that started election season in a distant third. It will give him the strongest mandate to form a majority government, but whether he can remains unclear.
And with the results so close, Christian Democratic leader Armin Laschet indicated that he would be doing "everything possible" to make a ruling coalition himself.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-election-merkel-chancellor/2021/09/26/aa711c8a-1b16-11ec-bea8-308ea134594f_story.html