Exit polls show the center-left Social Democrats in a very close race with outgoing Chancellor Merkel’s bloc in Germany’s parliamentary election, which will determine who succeeds the long-time leader after 16 years in power.
BERLIN— Exit polls show the center-left Social Democrats in a very close race with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc in Germany’s parliamentary election, which will determine who succeeds the long-time leader after 16 years in power.
Recent surveys show the Social Democrats marginally ahead. The environmentalist Greens, with candidate Annalena Baerbock, are making their first run for the chancellery, and polls put them several points behind in third place. Scholz voted in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, saying he hopes voters “will make possible ... a very strong result for the Social Democrats, and that citizens will give me the mandate to become the next chancellor of Germany.”
Germany's leading parties have significant differences in their proposals for tackling climate change. Laschet’s Union bloc is pinning its hopes on technological solutions and a market-driven approach, while the Greens want to ramp up carbon prices and end the use of coal earlier than planned. Scholz has emphasized the need to protect jobs as Germany transitions to greener energy.
In the capital's Kreuzberg district, a traditional leftwing stronghold, Jan Kemper, a 41-year-old manager at an online bank, said climate change and Germany’s slow pace of digitalization were among his main concerns. He praised Merkel’s crisis management style, but said key issues were left unattended.
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