Exit polls from the German election reveal a neck-and-neck race, with the conservative CDU party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and its main Social Democrat rivals, the SPD, tied on 25%. All eyes are now on coalition talks.
Germans went to the polls on Sunday to decide on the makeup of the Bundestag, the lower house of the country’s parliament.
The results will determine who replaces the CDU’s Angela Merkel as chancellor. Germany’s second-longest-serving leader in the modern era, she has governed the country since 2005. She presided over the eurozone crisis, the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and the rise of extremism and terrorism in Europe.
Merkel’s successor and their new government will be tasked with steering the country’s economy towards recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and the devastating floods in Germany this summer.
