German Conservatives Face Narrow Path to Power After Victory

Germany’s conservative leader Friedrich Merz emerged as the winner in Sunday’s election, but the results gave his bloc just one clear path to power with intense pressure to move quickly to form a government.

While Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance won 28.6% of the votes, the only centrist two-party option for a majority in the Bundestag is to partner with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s battered Social Democrats. Despite finishing third with 16.4% — its worst result since World War II — the center-left party will have significant leverage in coalition negotiations.