Rivals have seen turnaround in fortunes

TWO men were in the running to become Germany’s next chancellor yesterday evening as a tense election came to a close.

With the Social Democrats (SPD) projected to take a slightly larger share of the vote, it marked a turnaround for Olaf Scholz, whose political career appeared to be over just two years ago when he ran for the party leadership as a centrist and was defeated by a pair of virtual unknowns – the party had been taken over in a Momentum-style campaign by the hard-left.

But when the new party leaders realised they had no chance of winning a national election, they asked Mr Scholz to run for chancellor – and he led the SPD, which had been written off by almost everyone, back into contention, taking it to first place in the opinion polls for the first time in over four years.

Mr Scholz was once seen as so boring, he was nicknamed the “Scholzomat”. But in an election campaign where his rivals were beset by gaffes and scandal, his dullness became an asset. As their campaigns imploded, Mr Scholz came to look like the only adult in the room. He was also by far the most experienced. He has served as finance minister in Angela Merkel’s coalition government for the last four years, where he won the trust of German business – despite facing a series of alleged financial scandals.

It was a turnaround of a different kind for Christian Democrat (CDU) leader Armin Laschet, who had a reputation as a winner going into the election campaign. He broke Germany’s “red wall” in regional elections in 2017, winning the Left-wing stronghold of North Rhine-westphalia for the CDU.

A centrist like Merkel, he was seen by many in the party as a natural successor. But he was not the grassroots choice to be the party’s candidate. His campaign ran into serious trouble when he was filmed laughing behind the scenes at a solemn event to honour flood victims.

The son of a coal miner, Mr Laschet is seen as close to German business, and has come under fire from environmentalists for his support of the coal mining industry.