Germany votes to replace Merkel and gets... more Merkel

Chancellor may stay till end of year after deadlock

ANGELA Merkel could stay on as German leader until the end of the year after the country’s election ended in deadlock yesterday.

The 67-year-old chancellor, who is set to step down after four terms, may remain in office in a caretaker capacity if negotiations to form a new governing coalition are protracted, as seems likely.

Mrs Merkel’s centre-Right Christian Democrat party and the centre Left Social Democrats both picked up around 25 per cent of the ballots cast, according to an exit poll by the broadcaster ARD.

Under the German system, the largest party would get the first opportunity to form a government.

‘We cannot be satisfied’

But the neck-and-neck vote means there will be weeks – perhaps months – of tortuous coalition negotiations to decide who will replace Mrs Merkel after 16 years in the job.

Last night both the Social Democrat candidate Olaf Scholz and his Christian Democrat rival Armin Laschet claimed they had won the right to lead Germany.

Mr Laschet said he ‘will do everything to form a conservative-led government’ but admitted ‘we cannot be satisfied’ with the result – his party’s worst since 1949.

The German conservatives’ share of the vote dropped from the 33 per cent they won in 2017.

Mr Scholz last night hailed the Social Democrats’ ‘great success’ in the election and said voters had made it clear they wanted a change in government.

Possible coalition partners include the German Green party, which picked up 15 per cent of the vote, or the probusiness Free Democrats, which won 11 per cent. Alternative for Germany (AfD), which wants the country to leave the EU, also won 11 per cent but all other parties have ruled out any negotiations with the far-Right group.

Alexander Gauland, a Christian Democrat defector and co-founder of the anti-immigrant AfD, said Mrs Merkel ‘has ruined my former party’, adding: ‘We have accomplished our mission: Merkel is out.’

The Social Democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy, while the Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union have promised there will be no new tax rises if they lead the next Berlin government.