Social Democrats Beat Merkel Bloc In German Elections!

The center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany’s national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.Election officials said early September 27 that a count of all 299 constituencies showed that the Social Democrats won 25.9% of the vote, ahead of 24.1% for the Union bloc.

The environmentalist Greens came third with 14.8% followed by the pro-business Free Democrats with 11.5%. The two parties have already signaled that they are willing to discuss forging a three-way alliance with either of their two bigger rivals to form a government.The far-right Alternative for Germany came fourth with 10.3%, while the Left party took 4.9%. The party, known by its German acronym AfD, failed to get its core issue — migration — onto the campaign agenda this year.

Despite the projected outcome, party co-leader Tino Chrupalla said he was “very satisfied” by the result and welcomed the heavy losses for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Union bloc.AfD said four years ago that it would “hunt” Ms. Merkel who said in 2018 that she would not run for a fifth term. Other parties have ruled out any cooperation with AfD.For the first time since 1949, the Danish minority party SSW was set to win a seat in parliament, officials said.

Germany's Left party has scraped into Parliament, despite failing to meet the required 5% threshold.The Left, which is partly rooted in the communist party that ruled East Germany for decades, managed to win three constituencies outright in the September 26 election. Had it failed to win those constituencies it would likely have been kicked out of the Bundestag, as it is currently projected to receive only 4.8% of the vote.Another party, the South Schleswig Voters’ Association, looks set to win its first seat in Parliament since 1949, German public broadcaster ARD reports. Election officials said that the party is exempt from the 5% rule because it represents a national minority group, the Danes in northern Germany.

Voters in the German capital have backed a proposal for the Berlin regional government to take over nearly 2,50,000 apartments worth billions from corporate owners to curb rising rents. A nearly complete count of the September 26 referendum showed 56.4% of voters in favor of the measure, and 39% opposed.The non-binding referendum forces the Berlin government to consider expropriating big landlords in a radical move to cool one of Germany’s hottest real estate markets, where rents have become unaffordable for many residents in recent years.

Germany’s election authority made it clear that center-right chancellor candidate Armin Laschet’s votes will be valid although they could be seen as he put his ballot paper into the ballot box. German election rules state that ballot papers should be folded in such a way that it’s not possible to see how the person voted. It wasn’t immediately clear whether election officials in Mr. Laschet’s constituency in Aachen had noticed that his paper was folded wrongly, a moment that was caught by cameras.

Without explicitly naming Laschet, the election authority tweeted that “a nationally known politician voted for his own party, as expected.” It said that couldn’t be seen as an attempt to influence voters.It said if the ballot paper is folded wrongly, election officials are supposed to issue a new ballot paper. But if the wrongly folded ballot gets into the ballot box, it can no longer be screened out and is valid. Mr. Laschet’s paper went into the ballot box.