German election 2021: Tough talks ahead in race to replace Merkel — live updates
- The heads of Germany’s parties are meeting today to kick off coalition talks
- The Social Democrats (SPD) have emerged as the strongest party with 25.7% of the vote, according to preliminary results
- Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc was not far behind with 24.1%
- The Green Party had its biggest jump and best showing with nearly 15% support
- Both the conservative CDU and the SPD have claimed the mandate to form a coalition as the senior partner
Last updated at 08:50 GMT/UTC
CDU lawmaker blames party infighting
Patrick Sensburg, a member of parliament with the Christian Democrats (CDU), said that squabbles inside the party had kept their candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, from a clear victor. He particularly highlighted disputes between the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, whose leader Markus Söder had challenged Laschet for leadership of the bloc.
“We had the whole period, fights between our party coalition about the CDU and theCSU — and in the end, we don’t seem to have a team, we are fighting inside, and that’s one reason of the not satisfying result of this election,” Sensburg told DW in an interview.
However, Sensburg downplayed the idea that the CDU was out of the running: “I think it’s normal that also a party who [came] in second place can form a coalition […] The question is, can it be a strong coalition?”
“With the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP), we have lots of issues in common,” he added, referencing the third and fourth-place finishers whose alliances are likely to be crucial in coalition talks.
Laschet clings to hope of chancellorship
Michaela Küfner, DW’s chief political editor reported from the CDU headquarters regarding Armin Laschet’s attempts to form a coalition despite not gaining the most votes.
“Laschet clearly had the strategy to put a very vague offer on the table to the two potential kingmakers, the Greens the Free Democrats, that in a coalition led by him, he would want them to make sure that they deliver to their voters what they had promised as well,” Küfner said.
“That’s a very generous offer to put on the table, and that underlines the will to cling to power here at the CDU headquarters,” she added, saying that there was clearly an attempt to keep up the apperance of standing behing Laschet “despite the fact that one can sense innerparty criticism bubbling beneath the surface.”
Scholz takes a victory lap
To kick off the morning’s flurry of closed-door discussions and press statements, the SPD leadership took a victory lap first thing in the morning by thanking voters and making it clear that no matter what the CDU claims, they do not have a mandate to form a government.
“The CDU got the the message from voters that they should not be in government,” Social Democrat leader and chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz said, referring to the conservatives’ historic losses.
“They told us that we should form the government, they strengthened three parties, the SPD, the Greens and the FPD. These parties should lead the next government.”
He added that the “three huge challenges” facing his potential future administration are “to create more respect in our society, to modernize our industry in our country and to stop and slow down man made climate change,” as well as strengthening the European Union.
Watch live — Germany takes stock the day after
Germany is waking up after an uncertain election night. While the preliminary results are now in, it’s still not yet clear who will be filling Angela Merkel’s shoes. One thing, however, is certain — tough coalition talks are ahead, and they all start today.
DW has live TV coverage of the latest developments on coalition talks and what experts are saying. You can watch it live on this page, or on your TV. It is also available live on YouTube.
The top brass for all parties in the Bundestag will be meeting today, with press conferences expected throughout the morning and early afternoon. The main topic of discussion today amongst the strongest four parties — the CDU, SPD, Greens, and pro-business FDP — is likely to be their party’s role in Germany’s possible future coalition government.
Left party holds seat despite falling below threshold
The Left party failed to reach the 5% hurdle which blocks smaller parties from entering the Bundestag. However, they managed to hold onto their seats by passing an alternative hurdle — by winning at least three direct constituency votes. They held onto two constituencies in eastern Berlin and one in the eastern city of Leipzig.
Top candidate Dietmar Bartsch told public broadcaster ARD on Monday morning that the party had to ask itself some “fundamental questions” after Sunday’s “bitter defeat.”
Complicated coalition talks ahead
Despite the SPD’s stronger showing, CDU chief Armin Laschet has also indicated his desire to form a government, saying “the voters have given us the job to do. We’ll have to find commonalities probably between three political parties.”
With the German vote extremely fractured, there could be weeks or even months of messy coalition negotiations ahead. After the last federal election in 2017, it took six months to form a government after the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) walked out of talks with the CDU and the Green Party after a month. This resulted in a second four years of the so-called “grand coalition” of the CDU and SPD.
While another grand coalition of the two biggest parties is mathematically possible, both parties have appeared unenthusiastic about the prospect. The FDP and the Greens have signaled that they see themselves at kingmakers in a possible future government, but would need to hear what the CDU and SPD are offering first.
Norbert Walter-Borjans, co-chair of the SPD, appeared to cast doubt on a possible coalition between his party, the FDP, and the Greens on Monday morning. He told Deutschlandfunk radio that “the FDP wants dramatic tax cuts, they don’t want to take out loans but they also want to invest. That’s voodoo economics, it doesn’t work.” He added that he could not forsee that vision coalescing with that of the Greens in particular.
The CDU’s vice-chief Julia Klöckner, however, signaled that an alliance with the FDP and the Greens was exactly what her party wanted, saying there were “solid foundations” for such a coalition.
Click here for more on Germany’s possible coalition governments.
SPD edges out conservatives, Greens surge
After a long election night, the SPD appeared to have come out ahead of the conservative bloc of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU. With 25.7% percent support, it was the SPD’s first victory over the CDU since Merkel took over in 2005.
However, not only was the victory slight — the CDU reached 24.1% — it is a far cry from the results of decades past, when either of Germany’s two biggest parties easily captured over 40%.
Despite this, the SPD’s Olaf Scholz accepted the result warmly, saying “we have what it takes to govern a country.” He promised to take a stronger stance against climate change and to modernize German industry should he become leader.
Nina Haase, DW’s political correspondent, pointed out that the center-left party won three elections last night — the parliamentary vote, and the state-level votes in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. “That gave the party a big boost,” as they look to form a governing coalition in the Bundestag, she said from SPD headquarters in Berlin.
The SPD will have to look most likely at the business-friendly FDP and environmental Green party for coalition partners. Scholz “will really depend on what the FDP and Greens have to say,” Haase said.
Despite falling somewhat in the polls over the summer, the Green Party scored a historically strong 14.8%. Greens candidate Annalena Baerbock welcomed the result as a likely sign they will join the next German government as junior coalition partners.
es,ab/rs (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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