Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats locked in a close race with Merkel's bloc

As German voters cast ballots on Sunday for a new parliament, an exit poll for ARD public television has shown the 
CDU/CSU bloc -- the centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany-- has won 25% of the vote. According to pre-election polls, this would be a very tight race between the ruling German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) / Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Meanwhile, another exit poll of ZDF public television has put Social Democrats ahead by 26% to 24%. According to the latest trend, both the exit polls show environmentalist Greens in third place with about 15% support.

The pre-election polls show none of the parties running for the federal parliament. As per the constitution of Germany, a party needs to secure at least 30% of the vote share to run for federal parliament. Meanwhile, latest trends show there could be a coalition of at least three parties in order to run the parliament. It is worth noting that the voters are casting ballots since 8 am for a new parliament that will decide the successor for Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has been serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005. However, the trends show Merkel remarkable journey will not continue this time.

Ziemiak accepted his party has suffered a bitter loss this time 

The exit polls also put support for the business-friendly Free Democrats at 11-12% and the Left Party at 5%. The far-right Alternative for the Germany party, which no other party wants to work with, was seen winning up to 11% of the vote. While speaking to the media, Paul Ziemiak, general secretary of Laschet’s Christian Democratic Union has accepted that his party has suffered a bitter loss compared with the last election.

In the last election which was held in 2017, his party had secured 32.9% of the vote. However, Ziemiak pointed the possibility of a coalition with the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats. Meanwhile, Lars Klingbeil, General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, has predicted good results for his party. However, Klingbeil has not shown confidence in getting a majority and added "with this, we have the mission to form a coalition."

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP, Twitter/@nadisou6965)