Merkel, Schroeder both claim victory in German vote
Voters plunged Germany into political limbo on Sunday, splitting their ballots between Angela Merkel's conservatives and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats so closely that both claimed victory. Projections by leading polling institutes gave Merkel's conservatives the biggest share of the vote at around 35.2 percent, far less than pre-election surveys had predicted and not enough to form a coalition with their preferred partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), who stood around 10 percent. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's SPD were just behind Merkel's party at around 34.1 percent, their partners the Greens were at 8.2 percent and the new Left Party stood at 8.6 percent. The most likely outcome of an election that ended up far tighter than expected appeared to be a so-called "grand coalition" between Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), their sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the SPD. Schroeder, 61, who was counted out before the election by the pollsters despite a tireless, dynamic drive to win himself a third term, refused to concede the top job to Merkel in a speech to cheering supporters Sunday night. "I feel I have a mandate to ensure that in the next four years there will be a stable government in our country under my leadership," Schroeder bellowed. "There will be no coalition under her leadership with my Social Democrats." As long as Merkel's party maintains its lead over the SPD, the only obvious way for Schroeder to stay in office would be to seal a so-called "traffic-light" coalition with the Greens and the liberal FDP. FDP chief Guido Westerwelle ruled out such an alliance on Sunday, as leading members of the Greens have in recent weeks. Yet another option would be brand new elections, if after weeks of coalition negotiations none of the major parties are able to form a majority government. This has never happened in the history of post-war Germany.
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