What happens next? German politicians kick off coalition talks | DW News

After the cards were dealt, Germany's fraught election night had apparently left two options on the table: Either center-left Social Democrat (SPD) Olaf Scholz will preside over a coalition with the Green Party and the pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP), or center-right Christian Democrat (CDU) Armin Laschet will get the chance to do so. A grand coalition of the SPD and CDU is also mathematically possible, but that appeared to be the least-favored option among the key players on Monday. Still, it's likely to be an arduous path to either a "traffic light" coalition (named after the parties' colors: SPD/red, Green, FDP/yellow) or a Jamaica coalition (the Caribbean country's national flag handily corresponds to the CDU/black, Green, FDP/yellow). There are current precedents for both models at the state level (the traffic light governs Rhineland-Palatinate, while the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein has had a Jamaica for the last five years), but a three-way coalition is inherently complex and has not been attempted at the federal level since the very early days of the German Republic. Few think the new government will be able to take office before Christmas.

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