Germany votes for Merkel’s successor

Today Germany goes to the polls to elect a new Bundestag, the nation’s federal parliament. The resulting parliamentary arithmetic will give way to coalition negotiations, likely to involve two or three parties, which will ultimately decide who will succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor.

Merkel’s 16-year tenure as German Chancellor is hence coming to end. She has endorsed the CDU, her former party, now led by Armin Laschet.

A coalition between the German Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock, and the conservative CDU/CSU has long-been viewed as a likely outcome. But for months the opinion polls have swayed. 

Ahead of polling day, a successful SPD campaign under Olaf Scholz has placed the social democratic party just ahead of CDU/CSU in the polls. 

Coalitions are the norm in Germany, as the country uses a proportional representation system to elect its representatives. Any party with over 5% of the national vote is directly awarded proportional parliamentary seats.