>> this is a live from berlin. in social democrats signing -- sounding off promising to deliver a new government. >> we will be very fast in getting a new result for this government. >> they social democrats a narrow win at the election is a message to the conservative led government in power that it is time to step aside. not so fast says conservative head, he is preparing to enter

the coalition talks despite leaving angela merkel's party to the worst election results in its history. the social democrats are trying to win over the kingmaker, the greens and ftp party. -- fdp party ♪ >> to all of you around the world, welcome. the results of germany's election are bringing into picture a politics dramatically changed. social democrats of merged in winter. the second place is the conservatives. they put in their worst ever election performance. the march and victory was only 1%. why both main parties argued

that they could have a mandate to form the next government. let us go through the numbers. the spd took 26% of the vote. just over 24%. coming in third the greens with nearly 15% of the vote. the best result ever. almost guaranteeing them in any future government. the fdp also did well with 11.5%. -- will return to parliament and the socialist left will also retain seats in parliament despite a poor showing. this means that the fdp are sent to win seats in parliament and the greens and fdp are to take many seats. months of uncertainty as parties

enter coalition talks. how we got to where we are tonight. >> after a tight race, the final result brought clarity. they social democrats inching a small but definite leads over -- a over the conservatives. the spd will not be able to govern alone. they later made it clear who favorite partners would be. >> the voters made it clear. we should form the government. they strengthened three parties, they social democrats, the greens, and the fpd. >> they social democrats not be the only party trying to win allies. despite leading the conservative

party of angela merkel to the first -- worst result, armin laschet did not concede his party's right to governor -- govern. >> no party can derive a mandate to govern from this result. that applies to the spd. the election campaign is over. no one can act as though they alone can decide who will form a government. that is why talks with potential partners are necessary. >> a looks as though the conservatives will not be getting first dibs in those talks. in their postelection press conference, the greens coleaders indicated it will be the social democrats they would turn to first. >> there is a certain logic to talking to the spd and fpd now,

it does not rule out that we will talk to the conservatives. the fpd even went so far as to suggest they would speak to the greens before approaching the other two main parties. the main government in berlin will be made of three parties. an arrangement germany has not seen in more than half a century. negotiations dragged on for over four months. olaf scholz promises there will be a speedier revolution. >> we will be very fast in getting a result for this government. it should be before christmas if possible. >> until then, angela merkel will hold the full fort.

-- withhold the fort. >> olaf scholz since we -- says we will hold a coalition government by christmas. >> he has been in negotiations in the past. he knows how the things work. he is a pragmatist. they are going to have to do a deal. that always amounts to giving up some things you really wanted. asking for other things in return. there is one point to keep a watchful eye on. that is the unity within this party. it was uncharacteristically united during the campaign. it has a left wing that would really have some skepticism about governing together with a market friendly free democrats. we heard a key figure in that

left wing, saying yesterday evening that the fdp's party amounts to voodoo economics. that is the direction it could go in. the fdp wants to make this happen fast, they need to maintain party unity. >> the greens and the fdp, what will they demand here? >> the greens have made it clear, climate, environment, that has to be mainstreamed across every sector of government. across every part of the way that we live. transport, energy, social justice, people are going to be paying higher prices for gasoline. they will need to be compensated in some way. say that it is fair, so that they can be brought along on

this journey. that is the basic, nonnegotiable condition. the fdp say they want to put climate policy front and center along with digitalization. some commonality there. but the fdp does not want to see the government spending a lot of money. they cling to the debt break, and limit on public center debt food the idea that taxes only go down and never up. that piece of it, some kind of fiscal guarantee that a lot of this will be done through unleashing innovation into the private sector. that could be a basic condition for them. >> dw's chief political editor asked about the negotiating power of the conservatives. >> this is a historic setback

for the conservative union. where does it take the authority from to see itself in the game for forming a government? >> there is no authority to be a part of the next government. obviously, there is a situation which consists of an open process. they social democrats are slightly ahead of us. the green and the liberal party have expressed their interest to have talks with the csu. we are closely in the leading position along with the social democrats. we have a superficial campaign before the 26th of september. the reality of the issues and the challenges ahead of us is coming closer.

we will now have to deal and give the answers to the tough challenges in different areas. this is now the game. >> for social democrats are ahead. is there any scenario you can imagine you can see armin laschet become the german chancellor? >> there is no authority to claim in any way that we have to be a part of this government. it will depend on who will find a sufficient agreement in terms of political substance. this is open. there is explicit interest by the green party, by the liberal party, to have talks about this topic with the social democratic party. which is right, it is ahead of us.

with the cdu, we will see how far we can get on with this process. >> how reliable and stable is roomy while this process continues? -- how stable is germany while this process continues? -- >> germany is a stable democracy. after 16 years as angela merkel as a chancellor and the cdu as the leading party of the government, if there was a change in government it would be something that is natural. in a democracy. it would prove the vitality of our democracy. if the cdu were to continue in government with a new coalition partners, it would be an entirely positive democratic

process. germany enjoys 80% consensus on foreign policy. we are pro-european, we are in favor of the transatlantic committee and partnership. we have a high consensus on the fundamentals of our foreign policy. there have evolved some major differences. particularly between the -- party without any doubt, turned to the left wing of foreign-policy at a security policy. there is a high consensus between the cdu, liberals, and the greens. particularly when it comes to deal with russia, china, that we have to shift to the new role that china is are in international relations. the bullying policy in the region.

a more robust foreign policy the authoritarian regimes and countries in russia, china, and elsewhere. foreign policy is an area where the consensus and agreement between the cdu, greens, and the liberals is high. this is an area of extreme difference. . >> he is saying that it is foreign policy that almost unites the greens, fdp, and the conservatives. how can he say that? we heard nothing about her -- we heard nothing about foreign policy. >> it played a small role in the campaign. i would relative eyes what i just -- i would relate what i just heard there. the king maker parties do want

to push back against china and russia. especially on human rights. that is an area of commonality, not necessarily with the cdu. they have put commercial issues first when dealing with china. they chancellor has spoken out about human rights, but it has been two separate areas. i would see less commonality between the cdu and the other two on that. where there is a big divergence on foreignolicy between the liberal democrats, and the greens. in terms of europe. we know that the head of the liberal democrats, he wants to strengthen the intergovernmental corporation in the eu. but not fiscal integration.

but the greens and cdu are in favor of that. the eu recovery fund put in place with the aim of joint armoring in order to finance big projects including infrastructure, this is not something that the fdp would want to see expanded. they would wish to shrink it. that could create big riffs in europe. -- rifts in europe. >> he says he takes responsibility for his party registering the worst ever election results. he wants to leave the party into coalition talks were a possible new government. is there some cognitive dissonance there? >> one major german magazine wrote today that he seems to be suffering from a loss of his grip on reality. that is a harsh thing to say. he comes to this assertion from a very weak position.

he says he is responsible and exit polls show us that many voters say they did not want to vote for the cdu because of its chancellor candidate. he says he takes personal responsibility what is a historic debacle. they lost a large share of its vote. we have seen the spd go up in comparison. there is nothing written in stone in the german constitution is saying it has to be the party with the larger margin that has the right to form a government. his position to do that would be weaker than the social democrats. >> a relation analyst is going to focus through the shifts we have seen in voting patterns yesterday. >> there is so much to talk about in this election. we are talking about greens,

cdu, where everyone falls. let us look at the fdp. who voted for them? young people. the largest portion of their voters are 18-24-year-olds, including first-time voters. it goes down in order to older voters. younger people are resonating with them. the fdp calls for digitalization and more innovation in business. we heard it already from the fdp, they are the future. the smaller parties are aware younger people want to go to. we see that with the greens. they had a similar result as well. the younger voters are coming out to vote for the smaller parties. they are not thrilled with the larger parties. you can see, going youngest to oldest, most to least.

the greens' message of climate resonating strongly with young people as well. one of the other big things to talk about is voter migration. who stole votes from home. it shows -- from whom? i-- they lost nearly 1.5 million votes to the centerleft. they also lost 920,000 voters to the greens. 4000 voters to the liberal democrats. that is a message to the csu that they have a problem with their voter base. they will be in bigger trouble than they are right now. >> the numbers are astounding.

we saw the conservatives loose more than one million votes to the social democrats, why? >> we are sending the and of the -- we are saying the end of the merkel era. they social democrats and of the christian democrats regularly got respectively 30-40% of the vote. they would divide the chancellor between themselves. that is no longer the case. it has no longer been the case for the spd for quite a while. they have put in tougher forms. that -- tough reforms. that caused them a lot of voters -- that cost them a lot of voters. we see the same with the christian democrats. we witnessed it in the voter migrations. those are people who voted for

the cdu when the chancellor was in power because she took it into the center of the political spectrum. those boundaries are now returning. we are seeing armin laschet take the conservatives back to a market orientation. an old line conservatism. bringing back a party senior who stands for that ideology. that accounts for the shift. we will not see those big tent party's comeback in the form we used to know. >> melinda creed, a sobering assessment of the results from yesterday's election. thank you. for more, i am joined by sophia, senior research fellow at european reform in d.c. even without knowing the final outcome, has this election out of the prospect of a chancellor

that is not angela merkel, has it changed the country's position internationally? >> y. angela merkel is gone, she was an experienced states woman. she led a strong chancellor's office in germany. she also was not particularly interested in foreign policy. she was not always merkel. a big part of why germany is so powerful is structural. that is going to be remaining the same. if we look to foreign policy programs, in general, there is not so much disagreement on the big points. the front runner parties agree on germany as an inclusive power. there are nuances and those could have important

implications on spending priorities, investments, and partners. we look at the policy challenges which are to charter european course on china and russia and investing in its relationship with the u.s.. we can see some differences when we look at the different pollutions. -- coalitions. >> looking at germany and its position within nato and the 2% spending goal. of gdp. you think germany's attitude towards that is going to change? >> it is a complex attitude to begin with. the next government will have to make decisions about the value of the military as a foreign policy instrument. big conceptual questions. will they are they read the 2% target? to be honest, they will not. the conservative party is the

only party that embraces this goal and under merkel we did not make it there. the budget increases we are seeing under the dems is when to increase in the years to come. more money will be needed for procurement programs and improvement. they struggled with infrastructure, deploy ability, that risks affecting nato too. for that, you need the finance ministry and the defense ministry in the next government to work together to prioritize defense spending. >> what about the united states? it is often taken for granted that germany would be predictable. especially under angela merkel. does washington have to recalibrate the reliability equation now? >> i think germany is going to

remain a reliable partner. there are a few, especially on defense policy, there are a few issues where washington might not be all too pleased with the outcome. nuclear sharing is one of them. on the other hand, already select the gres and liberals are embracing more that washington narrative of the confrontation between the duterte italian -- between the totalitarian regimes and democracy. >> joining us tonight from washington, we appreciate your time and insights. >> thank you. >> this take a look at some of the other stories. hundreds of palestinian students have turned out in the occupied west bank to protest israeli military rates against hamas militants. sources said five people were

killed in the overnight operation including a 16-year-old boy. a u.s. federal jury has found pop singer r. kelly guilty of leading a sex trafficking ring. prosecutors accused the singer of exploiting his stardom for more than two decades to lower women and -- lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex. he faces six years-to life in prison. -- the earthquake was 5.8 on the richter scale. a church collapse and other buildings were badly damaged. authorities on the spanish -- on a spanish island has locked down a coastal area as lava from an repent volcano -- as rubbing volcano -- as anna rubbing

volcano -- u.s. humiliated europe in the ry der cup. the americans cruised to a 19-9 victory to claim the biggest win in the ryder cup era. the youngest ever team reclaims the cup from europe who won it back in 2018. here is a reminder of the big news from germany. the social democrats olaf scholz says he is going to deliver a new german government after a narrow win in the election. he says the voters have delivered a clear message that it is time for the conservatives to step aside. the conservatives say despite a poor showing, they too will be

launching talks to build a coalition government. do not forget you can always get news on the go, download our app from google play or the app store. so give you access to all of the -- that will give you access to all of the news and push notifications for the breaking news. can also use the app to send us photos and videos of what is happening. this is dw news, after a short break, our coverage of the fallout of the german election continues. ♪

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24 live from paris.hing france here are the stories making headlines. fuel prices in the -- fuel crisis in u.k. gets worse. cars lined up for a fourth straight day. it's because of a shortage of truck drivers and the government is considering whether to send in the army to help. in germany, the long and messy process of forming a new government is getting underway, with no clear winner in sunday's election and a bruising show for angela merkel's party. a number of coalitions are party -- are possible.