German federal election

German lawmakers elected Social Democrat Olaf Scholz as the new chancellor today, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel. Scholz, 63, won a clear majority, backed by 395 lawmakers in the lower house.

In the Bundestag, Olaf Scholz and his 16 ministers will be sworn in today and will take office as the first three-party coalition to rule the country.

According to German media, he received 395 votes.
As a reminder, the parties of the Germany's "traffic light coalition" - the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Freedom Party (FDP) - signed a coalition agreement on Tuesday, which marked the end of Angela Merkel's 16-year rule.

Namely, the long-term political stability of Germany under Angela Merkel, who as an unofficial European leader helped manage a series of political and economic crises on the continent, is over, and after the elections it seems that a weak and compromise coalition will be formed.

The German Social Democratic Party (GSDP) won the Bundestag election, ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc, the DPA reported, citing data posted on the federal election commission's website after the vote count.

The SDP receives 25.7 percent of the vote, its best result in years.

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on June 2 that Germany's government will push on with its work, even after her junior coalition partner SPD plunged into crisis following the resignation of its party chief.    

The leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partner SPD said on June 2 she was resigning from her party chief job, raising the spectre that Germany's embattled government could collapse.   

The woman campaigning to succeed Angela Merkel as head of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), said she may consider quotas to get more women in parliament, as she positioned herself for a party election in December.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks past Alexander Gauland (L), parliamentary group co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), at the beginning of a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on June 28, 2018 in Berlin. AFP PHOTO / John MACDOUGALL

Angela Merkel said she intends to stay in power until 2021, the end of the legislative period, as long as the Social Democrats (SPD) are on board.

"I am one of those people who sticks to what they promise," Merkel said in a TV interview with broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, cited by Politico.

Exploratory talks to form Germany's next coalition government collapsed shortly before midnight on Sunday when the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) walked out of marathon negotiations, The Guardian reports.