Germany election 2021: Social Democrats and Merkel’s CDU neck-and-neck in chancellor race, exit polls say

Preliminary results showed Finance Minister Olaf Scholz’s SPD with around 24.9 to 25.6% of the vote, followed closely by Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their candidate Armin Laschet on 24.4 to 24.7%.

In what is one of the most unpredictable elections for Europe’s biggest economy in decades, the SPD swiftly staked its claim with general secretary Lars Klingbeil saying his party “clearly has the mandate to govern”.

“It’s going to be a long election night, that’s for sure,” Scholz said. “But this is certain: that many citizens have put their crosses next to the SPD because they want there to be a change in government and also because they want the next chancellor to be called Olaf Scholz.”

With the conservatives staring down the barrel of their worst result since the second world war, CDU secretary Paul Ziemiak admitted that the “losses are bitter compared to the last election” in 2017, when the CDU-CSU notched up 33%.

But Laschet, 60, warned that the jury was still out on which party triumphed, as he said that he would “do everything we can to build a government led by the (conservative) Union”.

source: theguardian.com