Germany Heads For A Coalition, SPD Likely To Form Next Government

With no single party winning the overall majority, it is expected that Germany will form a coalition government.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: The results of the recently conducted German elections were out two weeks ago, but to this date, the name of the new chancellor has not been finalised. With no single party winning the overall majority, it is expected that Germany will form a coalition government. In this regard, the outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s centre-right bloc on Tuesday held the talks with the environmentalist Greens.

The vote share in the September 26 German elections has been in disarray with no single party winning an overall majority in Germany's Bundestag or lower house of parliament to form the next government. The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) was able to garner 25.7 per cent, while the outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel''s Christan Democratic Union (CDU) witnessed a decline of 8.9 percentage votes in comparison to its last elections. The CDU was able to get 24.1 per cent of votes. The Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) secured 14.8 per cent and 11.5 per cent, respectively.

As per the Associated Press reports, the Greens and FDP had exploratory talks with the SPD and its candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz on Sunday. It appears that Olaf has a better chance of succeeding Angela Merkel's as the next German Chancellor.

In general circumstances, the largest party forms the next government, but it is not the case in the contemporary German electorate's history. Earlier in 1976 and 1980, the then German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stayed in power irrespective of the fact that his party came second. The coalition is part of the German electorate. There is no specific time limit to form the next government, various parties get into exploratory conversations with each other to come up with a common ground in order to form coalitions. The process could take months before a coalition is formed. The outgoing coalition government has a record of taking a total duration of six months to form the government.

Angela Merkel will step down when the next government in Germany will be formed. In the interim, she will be the caretaker Chancellor of Germany.