The polls in Germany closed for the elections that put an end to the era of Angela Merkel after 16 years.
And according to the first exit polls released by public TV Ard, the CDU, the party of the outgoing chancellor, has recovered all the disadvantage towards the Social Democrats.
A thrilling head-to-head is looming.
Olaf Scholz's SPD and Armin Laschet's CDU-CSU are 25% paired. Followed by the Greens at 15%, the liberals and the ultra-right of Afd are at 11%, Linke at 5%, poised to join the Bundestag because the threshold is set at just 5%.
According to the exit polls released by the other public TV channel, Zdf, a slight advantage for the SPD at 26%, ahead of the CDU-CSU which is at 24%. Then the Greens at 14.5%, the Liberals at 12%, the Afd at 10% and Linke at 5%.
The Zdf exit polls were greeted with cheers and shouts from the stadium at the SPD headquarters in Berlin. The party is already claiming the chancellery for Olaf Scholz: "I am happy with the result and that the townspeople have decided that the SPD will take share everywhere - said Scholz -. It will be a long evening, but it is still clear that citizens want a change, and that the next chancellor be called Olaf Scholz ".
Completely different tones are those of Laschet: "It is a head to head, the outcome is not yet clear - underlines the candidate chancellor of the Union -. We will put our utmost efforts to build a government under the leadership of the Union".
(Unioneonline / L)
How the German electoral system works
