German elections live: Social Democrats advance in race for chancellor as CDU plunges to all-time low | World news

Agence-France Presse has a practical guide to the following:

First, all parties engage in what are called “exploratory talks”. In this initial phase, which has no time limit, nothing prevents parties from holding coalition talks in parallel – although tradition dictates that the larger party invites smaller ones for discussions.

However, Armin Laschet, the candidate for chancellor of Merkel’s center-right CDU-CSU bloc, said the Tories would do “whatever we can” to lead the next government, even after the preliminary results put them down. a little behind the center-left Social Democrats. (SPD).

SPD candidate Olaf Scholz, the country’s finance minister, also said voters wanted a change and that “the next chancellor is called Olaf Scholz”. The Greens have convened a party congress for October 2 during which they could decide with whom they would start exploratory talks.

The pro-business FDP party, which like the Greens could play a kingmaker role, has said it prefers a coalition with the Conservatives and the Greens, but a three-way alliance with the SPD and the Greens also remains. on the table.

On Monday, the parties will hold leadership meetings. Newly-elected MPs from each party will also hold their first meetings next week, with the SPD and CDU-CSU planning to meet on Tuesday. The newly elected parliament is due to hold its inaugural session no later than 30 days after the elections, on October 26.

If two or three parties agree in principle that they wish to form an alliance, then they must enter into formal coalition negotiations, with various working groups meeting to discuss political issues.

At the end of these negotiations, the parties decide who will be in charge of which ministry and sign a coalition contract. This phase also has no time limit, with the outgoing government – Angela Merkel’s administration – holding the fort in the meantime.

The parties then decide who they would like to be chancellor before the official vote in the Bundestag.