Scholz, Laschet Eye Chancellorship After German Elections

Both of the main candidates to be the next German chancellor, Social Democrat (SPD) Olaf Scholz and Christian Democrat (CDU) Armin Laschet, have said they want to lead the country into the post-Merkel era after Sunday's elections, Robin Powell reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Photo Insert: SPD bet Olaf Scholz is poised to snag the German chancellorship, but Merkel-endorsed Armin Laschet of the CDU is still breathing down his neck.

The next government will be the first in 16 years not led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took her conservatives to four consecutive election wins and defined Germany's political culture for a generation.

Her favored successor, Laschet, is however fighting for his political survival after seeing the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), narrowly beaten by the rival SPD and slump to its worst-ever election result. Merkel told the broadcaster France24 that the results were the worst for the party since 1949.

The CDU/CSU is expected to win just over 24 percent of the vote, according to media projections using early vote counts. It won 32.9 percent of the vote in 2017. The center-left SPD meanwhile is expected to win about 26.5 percent.

The two parties have been in a so-called "grand coalition" of center-left and center-right for the last four years. To thundering applause at party headquarters in Berlin, Scholz expressed his delight at the SPD's "great success," a turnaround for a party that had long been in the doldrums.

In the last elections, the party won 20.5 percent, and it had seen its fortunes wane further while in coalition with the CDU/CSU over the past four years. But Scholz led the party steadily to the top of the polls over the course of a successful election campaign that maximized his personal popularity with voters.

Scholz has campaigned for a higher minimum wage, tax reductions for middle and low earners, and new public investment. He said that voters had made it clear that they wanted a change in government - and for the next chancellor to be him.

"This is a mandate," he said. He wanted to wrap up coalition negotiations by Christmas, he said later in a television debate.

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