Germany's center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat Merkel's bloc in national election

Olaf Scholz
(Image credit: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union bloc narrowly lost Sunday's national election to the center-left Social Democrats, election officials said early Monday in Berlin. With all 299 constituencies counted, the Social Democrats won 25.9 percent of the vote, the CDU bloc won 24.1 percent, the Greens came in third with 14.8 percent, and the business-centered Free Democrats earned 11.5 percent. No winning party in post-World War II German had ever taken less than 31 percent of the vote, The Associated Press reports.

Social Democrats leader Olaf Scholz claimed victory and said voters had returned "an encouraging message and a clear mandate to make sure that we get a good, pragmatic government for Germany." A more subdued CDU bloc leader Armin Laschet declined to concede, noting that "it hasn't always been the first-placed party that provided the chancellor."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.