Social Democrats win German parliamentary elections

Correspondent in Berlin,

The German general elections produced only one winner but two contenders for the post of chancellor to succeed Angela Merkel.

According to a provisional official count by the Federal Election Commission, the Social Democratic Party led by Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz won 25.7% of the vote.

He is a short head ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, the conservatives led by Armin Laschet, who, despite their historic defeat (24.1%), also intend to conduct their talks to form a government.

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"Scholz beats Laschet but he is still far from being chancellor"

, headlined Monday, September 27 the popular daily

. After consultation with their respective executive committees, the two contenders for the chair left vacant by Angela Merkel will begin on Monday morning, and separately, negotiations with environmentalists (Grünen) and the right-wing liberal party FDP. At the end of a disappointing campaign, the former won 14.8% of the vote against 11.4% for the latter, and both appeared in the role of kingmakers. Although they approached the SPD at the end of the campaign, the Greens said they were ready to study the CDU's offers. For its part, the FDP would naturally prefer to govern with the conservatives of Armin Laschet.

Unlike the SPD, which rose 5% compared to the 2017 election, Konrad Adenauer's CDU suffered a real rout, falling by almost 9 points compared to the 2017 election. Although in a weak position, its head of list Armin Laschet does not give up his ambitions.

CDU / CSU, he said. The conservative can also take advantage of an opinion study conducted by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen according to which 33% of voters favor a coalition led by the CDU, against 28% showing their preference for SPD leadership.

For the German press, it is a

which begins and certainly a period of turbulence in the country, which, in Europe, has always represented a pole of stability.