Greens and Liberals emerge kingmakers from German polls as fight for Chancellor is still on

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<strong>Germany's centre-left Social Democrats have narrowly beaten the conservative party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel in national elections, according to preliminary results.</strong></p>
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The Social Democrats (SPD) leader Olaf Scholz says he has a clear mandate to form a government, but his conservative rival, Armin Laschet, has declared that he will fight on as neither party has won an absolute majority and a coalition will determine who will rule.</p>
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The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won 25.7% votes ahead of 24.1% for Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc. The Greens came in next with 14.8% followed by the liberal business-friendly FDP with 11.5% while the far right AfD got 10.3% share, according to official figures released by the German federal returning officer.</p>
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With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward "grand coalition" of the past four years, the most likely outcome is a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel's conservatives, according to a Reuters report from Berlin.</p>
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However, it could take months for a new coalition to take shape which means Merkel would continue in a caretaker role as the Chancellor.</p>
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This time around the Greens and liberals have emerged as the kingmakers as they are looking for a role in a new coalition.</p>
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The Greens’ candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, who will now play the role of kingmaker in coalition talks, has led the party to its best ever result in a national election but the fight has not been free of controversy.</p>
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She was accused, during the poll campaign, of lifting five passages in her recently published book from news articles and Wikipedia entries without crediting them which had come as a setback to the party which had started as favourite.</p>
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"We wanted more. We didn't achieve that, partly because of our own mistakes at the beginning of the campaign — mistakes on my part," German broadcaster DW cited Baerbock as telling her supporters after the results</p>
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Christian Lindner, who has led the business-friendly FDP since 2013, will be the second kingmaker in Germany’s coalition negotiations. The 42-year-old took on the party’s leadership in 2013, after a disastrous election result, which saw it exit the Bundestag.</p>
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"Two maybe-chancellors and two kingmakers" – was one of the headlines summing up Sunday night's rather scrappy result, but that is what it looked like, according to BBC News.</p>
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Because it's not just the Social Democrat and conservative leaders fighting for power. The two kingmakers are open to offers.</p>
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Together the Liberals and the Greens make up over 25% of the vote and would carry both of the big parties over the line. However, there are serious differences  between the two parties.</p>
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Greens leader Annalena Baerbock wants to loosen Germany's debt brake that stops a big jump in public debt. FDP leader Christian Lindner has little time for her party's "ideas of tax hikes, or softening the debt brake".</p>
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But of all the possible coalitions, the Greens and the Liberals feature in the two that are most likely to form.</p>
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