German federal elections 2021- SPD make gains as CDU heading for worst results in decades
Social Democratic Party (SPD) expected to win 202 seats while Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) 197 seats in dead heat race
An exit poll
carried out for ARD, a German public broadcaster, put the SPD neck and neck
with the CDU.
The left leaning environmentalist Greens are on course to record their best ever result, headed for over 14% of the vote. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) were hovering around the 11% mark. The socialist Left party is on 5%.
The
center-left Social Democrats (SPD) on 25.2%, narrowly ahead of the center-right
Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party (CDU/CSU) on 24.6%.
The
projections suggest the center-left parties were the biggest winners of the
election. The SPD gained 4.5% compared to their result in the last federal
election in 2017, while the Greens were up over 6%.
The
conservative bloc suffered heavy losses as the Angela Merkel era comes to an
end. They were down by almost 8% on the previous election and are heading
towards their worst result since 1949.
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”.
Here are two
different projections by German broadcasters
SPD: 25.6%
(+5.1)
CDU-CSU:
24.4% (-8.5)
Greens:
14.7% (+5.8)
FDP: 11.6%
(+0.9)
AfD: 10.3%
(-2.3)
Die Linke :
5% (-4.2)
The exit
poll results published by German public television and radio broadcaster ARD
SPD: 24.9%
(+4,4)
CDU-CSU:
24.7% (-8.2)
Greens:
14.6% (+5.7)
FDP: 11.7%
(+1)
AfD: 11.1%
(-1.5)
Die Linke:
5% (-4.2)
Khalid Bhatti
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