The Social Democrats win a majority of seats

Berlin (CNN) – The Social Democratic Party (SPD)Germany wins most seats in country’s federal elections, preliminary results show, but it is too early to know

The SPD won a narrow victory over the outgoing president’s center-right conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Angela MerkelThe office responsible for overseeing the federal elections, according to Der Pantesvahelliter.

The Der Bundeswahlleiter website claimed that the SPD won 25.7% of the vote, the CDU / CSU constituency 24.1% of the vote, and the Green Party 14.8% of the vote in Germany’s 299 constituencies.

The election is coming to an end Merkel’s 16 years As president, but his successor will not be decided until the coalition agreement is negotiated.

The SPD will now begin negotiations to form a new government, a process that could take weeks or even months. After Merkel’s victory in the September 2017 election, it took more than five months to form a government.

Although the preliminary number gives the SPD only a small advantage over its closest rivals, the results represent a significant improvement for the party, which won 20.5% of the vote in the last 2017 elections.

When the votes were counted, party leader Olaf Scholes called the decision “a great victory.”

“Many citizens put their crosses next to the SPD (logo) because they want regime change and they want the next president of this country to be named Olaf Scholes,” he said.

The 63-year-old politician has served as Germany’s deputy and finance minister in Merkel’s grand coalition government since 2018, leading to Germany’s economic response to the epidemic.

“Now we’ll wait for the final result, but we’ll get down to work. Thank you!” Scholes said.

He was interrupted by loud applause and cheers from party supporters as he spoke.

Robin Fukman, 20, a staunch Scholars supporter, told CNN he was pleased with the results.

“It’s really a wonderful decision, people believe in Olaf Scholes, people believe that Armin Lashed can not really lead this country,” he said. “So we have an mandate to lead a new government, I hope we will. First, we are going to celebrate because this is a very exciting decision.”

CDU leader: Party ‘can’t be happy’

Early in the night, the atmosphere at CDU headquarters worsened when the first exit polls came out. These suggested that the CDU had seen the worst end in its history of alliance with its sister party, the Christian Community Union in Bavaria.

Armin Lashed

CDU leader Armin Laschett told supporters that the party was “not satisfied with the decision”, but said the final outcome was unclear.

“We can predict that there may be a government with three parties,” he said. He added, “The party will make every effort to form a coalition.”

Lashet added that the CDU has received an “order against a left-wing government.”

Merkel, who has been seen as a stable hand for the past 16 years, campaigned with the message of party stability in the country after she said she would no longer run in the election. But now she accepted what she had said was a bitter night loss.

“When you look at how we lost compared to the last election, it’s bitter for us,” CDU general secretary Paul Jimiak told CNN in an interview at party headquarters.

“But after the numbers it becomes clear that there is still no clear vision of who is ahead and how right they are,” he said.

The question is, who can form a stable government and, for the future, form an alliance for this country? We have many problems to solve (climate protection, innovation), but we must guarantee stability and social security. The alliance of CDU / CSU, Greens and FDP could work well and we will talk about that in the next few days. “

Peter Altmeyer of the CDU, who served as Union Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, told CNN that the election results were “not a huge victory for the opposition in any way” and that “the CDU is” very confident of ruling. .

Reflecting on the elections, he added: “The clear message to all people around the world is that democracy is very stable in Germany. It is not the day of extremist parties, not the left, not the right. “

Deborah Prabha, a 27-year-old law student and Christian Democratic Union youth, told CNN at CDU headquarters that the results were disappointing.

“We have to consider that we have been dating Angela Merkel for 16 years and I am a big fan of them. I am sad that she is leaving the post,” he said. “We called her Mum (mom). She knew how to talk to people. She communicated with people. She did a lot for Germany. It made her so much better compared to other politicians. I miss her sense of humor.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received applause from high-ranking CDU members on Sunday.

Green ‘Want More’

Meanwhile, people at the Green Party headquarters in Berlin cheered as they read the first exit polls.

Following that, the initial results gave the party 14.8% of the vote.

“We campaigned twenty-four hours a day, until last night, to an unprecedented extent in this country,” Los Verdas leader Annalena Barbach said while thanking party supporters.

Environmental and economic concerns prioritized by the devastating floods that devastated parts of Germany this summer emerged as the main theme of the campaign.

Barbach attributed the success of his party to new and young voters. “This drive of markets, a lot [gente] A member of our party in recent years has led to these excellent all-time results, ”he said.

But, Firebaugh added, the party “wanted more” and could not do somewhat better because of the mistakes she made during the season.

AfD’s top presidential candidate, Alice Weidel, put on a bold face after the planned election results showed a 2.6% drop for the far-right party since 2017.

“We are in double digits and we were able to stress ourselves out,” he said, according to Reuters. “The claim that we will leave Parliament after the legislative term has completely failed. We are very happy.”

Analyst: ‘Strict order’ to unite parties

Until a new government is replaced, the outgoing government will remain in office as a functioning government. Merkel, 67, is retiring and will take over as the new president.

Although the final decision changed the distribution of votes, the basic truth is that “after 16 years in power, nearly 76% of Germans have not voted for Merkel’s party,” CNN commentator Dominic Thomas said.

There will be no real opportunity for the CDU or the SPD to form an alliance, he added.

“If SPD is at the forefront, then Green and FDP are at the forefront.

Exit polls suggest Center and Center moving to the left, he said, reflecting the concerns of a younger electorate.

“It is clear that this drive is moving more towards issues related to social welfare and green politics,” Thomas said.

Written by Frederick Pleitzen, Salma Aptelasis, Nadine Schmidt and Stephanie Halas from Berlin and Laura Smith-Spark from Laura. Nina Avramova, Claudia Otto, Inke Capeller, Sebastian Shukla and Aditi Sankal contributed to the report.