Summary
It’s just
past 6am in Germany, where people are waking up to the official preliminary
results of Sunday’s federal election. If you’re just joining us, here’s a brief
summary of what they were:
- The centre-left SPD and their chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz, have won 25.7% of the vote, giving them a slim lead over their centre-right CDU rivals.
- Angela Merkel’s CDU party and their candidate, Armin Laschet, sank to a historic low in a federal election, with 24.1 %.
- The Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock, have secured their best result in a national poll, with early results putting them at 14.8% – in third place and ahead of the liberal FDP, which posted 11.5%, also a small improvement.
- The far-right AfD is set to enter parliament for the second time, on 10.3%.
- The leftwing Die Linke party failed to clear the 5% hurdle to enter parliament, winning just 4.9%, but will be represented anyway due to a loophole that excepts them if they win three direct mandates.
- The Bundestag will welcome its first transgender MPS, after Green candidates Tessa Ganserer and Nyke Slawik won seats.
- The parties will now embark on “exploratory talks” to form a coalition government, with a three-way coalition considered the most likely at this point.
- Likely constellations include a so-called green-yellow-red “traffic light” coalition, with the SPD, Greens and FDP, or a “Jamaican” coalition of the CDU/CSU, Greens and FDP.
- Both Scholz and Laschet have insisted they will form the government, with Laschet pointing out that, “It hasn’t always been the case that the party in first place provides the chancellor.” The Greens and the FDP will play kingmakers.
- Merkel will remain chancellor while coalition talks proceed - that could be a lengthy process, with talks lasting three months in 2017.
06:24
Who is Annalena Baerbock?
The Greens’
candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, who will now play the role of
kingmaker in coalition negotiations, has led the party its best ever result in
a national election – but the path has been a rocky one.
Promising a
climate-friendly “new start” she party briefly led the opinion polls after her
nomination in April, appealing to younger voters with promises of a greener,
more sustainable policy and economy.
But her
campaign stumbled after Baerbock was accused of plagiarising various passages
from a recently published book from news articles and Wikipedia entries without
crediting them, accusations she denied. That came after other scandals
including her failure to register extra payments to parliament as well as errors
on her CV.
Once a
competitive trampolinist, the 40-year-old is a graduate of the London School of
Economics and has been a member of the German parliament since 2013. She became
a co-leader of the Greens in 2018.
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