German Chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged defeat on Sunday and congratulated his conservative challenger Friedrich Merz.
“This is a bitter election result for the Social Democratic Party, it is also an electoral defeat,” Scholz said in a first reaction.
“Congratulations on the election result,” he said in remarks directed towards Merz.
A brash economic liberal who has shifted the conservatives to the right, Merz is considered the antithesis of former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led Germany for 16 years.
Merz conditionally supports equipping Ukraine with longer-range Taurus missiles, a step Scholz‘s government shied away from, and sees Europe as firmly anchored in NATO.
Sunday’s election came after the collapse last November of Scholz‘s coalition of his SPD, the Greens and pro-market FDP in a row over budget spending.
Lengthy coalition talks could leave Scholz in a caretaker role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive the German economy after two consecutive years of contraction and as companies struggle against global rivals.
A delay would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges such as Trump threatening a trade war and attempting to fast-track a ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.
Scholz said he will not take part in coalition negotiations with the conservative bloc if Friedrich Merz invites the Social Democrats.
“I will not be a SPD representative in a federal government led by the CDU, nor will I negotiate it,” said Scholz in a post-election panel discussion aired by public broadcasters.
Jens Spahn, a former German health minister, told Reuters Germany needed growth and that illegal migration had to end.
According to Spahn, migrants coming to Germany amounted to the population of “a big city” every year for the past ten years.
“We are over the limit of what’s possible,” said Spahn.
