Conservative leader Merz only needs Social Democrats to form coalition in Germany
Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, winners of the German general election, will be able to form a coalition government with only the Social Democrats as junior partners, without needing to include the Greens to obtain a majority of seats. The final vote has left the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance out of the Bundestag by a few hundredths of a percentage point. If this new left-wing populist party had made it into the chamber, it would have complicated the arithmetic for putting together majorities and would have forced Merz, against his will, to negotiate a three-party coalition to become chancellor.
