Election Results Leave No Party With Majority

Results: Merkel's CDU, along with the CSU, pulled in 35.2%.

The close finish in Sunday’s parliamentary elections means there is no certainty yet about who will lead the new German Government. The Christian Democratic/Christian Social Union finished ahead of the Social Democrats by less than 1 % (35.2% to 34.3%), according to preliminary official results. No party achieved the majority necessary to form a government, and the SPD, CDU/CSU and The Greens all lost seats in parliament.

Both leading chancellor candidates, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) and Angela Merkel (CDU/CSU) are now conducting talks with the other parties in the first steps of choosing the coalition partner or partners necessary to form a government.

The Free Democrats finished third with 9.8%, a more than 2% gain over 2002. The Left Party.PDS, an alliance of the Party of Democratic Socialism and former SPD members, finished fourth with 8.7%. SPD coalition partner Alliance 90 / The Greens brought in 8.1%, slightly less than in 2002.

Voter turnout was down slightly over 2002 with 77.7 of voters casting ballots this year as opposed to 79.1 in the most recent parliamentary election.

Close: Chancellor Schröder says he will work to build a governing coalition.

“I feel myself confirmed to ensure for our country that also in the coming four years there will be a stable government under my leadership,” Schröder said at SPD headquarters in Berlin Sunday night. “We have achieved something which many professional observers assumed was absolutely impossible … [out of an irreparable situation] to change the results with the help of aware citizens.” Schröder ruled out a partnership with the PDS, the former communist party.

However, Merkel said the election results show clearly that Schröder’s Red-Green government is over. “It is a very clear governing mandate that we have received,” Merkel said, referring to the 1.2 million-vote margin when counting the CDU/CSU result together with that of the FDP. Merkel was to meet first with the FDP on September 19 and ruled out a coalition with the Left Party.PDS.

Possible governing configurations include

• Grand Coalition – CDU/CSU and SPD
• Traffic Light Coalition – SPD (red), FDP (yellow), and The Greens
• Jamaica Coalition – CDU/CSU (black), FDP, and The Greens

September 19, 2005

Link
Decision 2005 – German Elections
-- InFocus offers an overview of the candidates and parties, the complex road to early elections, and a look back at the short but intense national campaign that occupied Germans this summer.

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