蜜芽传媒

Germany's centre-left Social Democrats have narrowly beaten the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections, according to preliminary results.

SPD leader Olaf Scholz says this gives him a clear mandate to form a government, but his conservative rival, Armin Laschet, is determined to fight on.

But whoever takes power will need to form a coalition with the Greens and Liberals, who attracted most support from the under-30s, but who also have very different policies on taxes.

Melissa Eddy is Berlin correspondent for the New York Times. She says with an historic 15% of the vote, the Greens have vowed that the next government must be a climate government.:

"We saw a massive climate demonstration, tens of thousands of young people, old people... entire families that were turning out on the Friday before the vote and protesting in front of the parliament, saying that climate change must be on the agenda for the next government."

(Photo: A worker takes down a Green poster after the election. It says 'come on, we'll change politics'. Credit: Reuters)

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