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Germany&#39;s Social Democrats narrowly forged ahead of Angela Merkel&rsquo;s Conservative party in the projected results of Sunday&#39;s national election and claimed they were in a position to lead a coalition government for the first time since 2005.</p>
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The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 26.0% of the vote, ahead of 24.5% for Merkel&#39;s CDU/CSU conservative bloc, projections for TV broadcaster ZDF showed, but both groups believed they could lead the next government.</p>
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With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward &quot;grand coalition&quot; of the past four years, the most likely outcome is a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel&#39;s conservatives, according to a Reuters report from Berlin.</p>
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However, it could even take months for a new coalition to take shape, and will likely involve the smaller parties such as the Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP), according to local media reports. Merkel would continue in a caretaker role as the Chancellor.</p>
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The SPD&#39;s increase in vote share from 20.5% in the 2017 national election, reflects a swing to the left for Germany.</p>
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&quot;We are ahead in all the surveys now,&quot; the Social Democrats&#39; chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz said in a round table discussion with other candidates after the vote.</p>
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Scholz, 63, would become the fourth post-war SPD chancellor after Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder. He was the finance minister in Merkel&#39;s cabinet.</p>
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Scholz&#39;s conservative rival Armin Laschet, signalled his bloc was not ready yet to concede, though his supporters were subdued. Laschet had dented his party&rsquo;s vote share as he was caught smiling on camera during a visit to the flood-hit areas where people were going through an unprecedented tragedy.</p>
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&quot;It hasn&#39;t always been the first-placed party that provided the chancellor,&quot; Laschet, 60, told the round table.</p>
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Schmidt ruled in the late 1970s and early 1980s in coalition with the FDP even though his Social Democrats had fewer parliamentary seats than the conservative bloc.</p>
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Scholz and Laschet both said they would aim to strike a coalition deal before Christmas.</p>
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Politcial analysts say that moderate centrism has prevailed in the German election unlike the populism that has come to the fore in other European countries.</p>
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The projected results for ZDF showed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on track for 10.5%, worse than four years ago when they won 12.6% of the vote.</p>
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