Germany on the crossroads: who will become chancellor, will be decided in coalition negotiations

Yelena Ivanova

Voting in the elections to the Bundestag and the two regional parliaments - in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - were chaotic in Berlin. The Berlin Senate decided to hold a marathon in the city simultaneously with the elections, in which 30 thousand people took part. As a result, the entire center of the capital was closed, and it was possible to leave the city through a single tunnel. But the electoral activity in Berlin was also great, so there were not enough ballots. But it was impossible to bring them to the polling stations because of the marathon, so the polling stations remained open even after the official closure.

The first reports on the results were also chaotic. First, two state-owned channels announced the victory of the Social Democrats with 25% against 23% of the votes cast for the conservative CDU / CSU alliance. Then one of the channels - ARD - significantly reduced the gap between parties and candidates, respectively. Olaf Scholz has 0.3% of the vote. The latest results show the result of 25.9% of the votes cast for the Social Democrats and 24.5% for the CDU / CSU.

Disappointed "greens". Preliminary results show that the environmental party won 14.5%. This is less than the forecasts showed. And although the Greens received significantly more votes than in previous elections, the dream of a Green Chancellor will remain a dream, at least in this electoral cycle.

Before the elections, Christian Democrats stated that they would only form a government if they won the elections. Now the mood has changed. Both the CDU and the Bavarian CSU said that with this result, their union, despite losing more than 7% of the vote, compared to the previous elections, will hold coalition negotiations. This was confirmed by the candidate for the post of Chancellor Armin Laschet. If the gap between him and Olaf Scholz were greater, he would already be a "political corpse." As a result, when the parties are separated from each other by tenths of a percent, Laschet had a chance, which he immediately took advantage of. The CDU / CDU candidate announced the start of coalition talks tomorrow.

As sociologists predicted, who will become the chancellor will be decided not only by voters, but also by the parties that will enter the coalition.

Green Party spokesman Robert Habek has already announced that his party will negotiate with both the SPD and the CDU / CSU.

Free Democrats chairman Christian Lindner prefers to deal with conservatives, although he does not exclude an alliance with the Social Democrats. On TV talk show ARD and CDF, he proposed negotiating between Free Democrats and Greens to understand the scope of compromises needed to form a government before both junior partners sit down to negotiate with the election winner and second in the race.

After the Berlin elections, the political alignment is as unclear as it was before the elections.

But Olaf Scholz is sure that the Germans gave him a mandate to form a government, and his task is to create a cabinet that reflects the mood in the country.