Razor-thin lead for Social Democrats in German polls

BERLIN: The race to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel is resting on a knife’s edge, with the first projections based on ballots counted showing the Social Democratic Party in the lead by a percentage point or less over the Christian Democratic Union.

With final results still hours away, the race was too close to call, reports the international media. Regardless of the outcome, the winner will still need to team up with other parties to form a

government. And in the complex equation that can be required in Germany, it is possible that if the winning party fails to get others on board, the one that placed second could wind up leading the country.

Earlier in the evening, party leaders began reacting as television news channels broadcast the exit polls, with each of the two leading candidates claiming his right to build the next government and occupy the chancellery.

Cheers erupted at the Social Democratic Party’s headquarters when the exit polls were announced. A short while later, supporters clapped and chanted “Olaf! Olaf!” as Olaf Scholz, their candidate, took the stage to address the crowd.

“People checked the box for the S.P.D. because they want there to be a change of government in this country and because they want the next chancellor to be called Olaf Scholz,” he said. With many more people voting by mail than usual because of the pandemic, organizers were cautioning that it might take longer than it typically would to count the ballots.

Each of the leading parties, which have governed together in a coalition under Ms. Merkel for 12 of the past 16 years, appeared to fall short of the 30 percent mark. Such a result would represent the first time that her party, the Christian Democratic Union, had fallen that low since its founding in 1945.

Nevertheless, the conservative candidate, Amin Laschet, appeared at his party headquarters an hour after the polls closed, declaring the outcome “unclear” and vowing to try to form a government even if his party came in second.

“For this reason, we will do everything in our power to build a government led by the conservatives because Germany needs a future coalition that will modernize our country,” Mr. Laschet told the appreciative crowd.