Statements from Merkel and Laschet boost Scholz’s hopes of becoming the next chancellor
Angela Merkel and his main rival have congratulated Olaf Scholz on his weekend election win as he hopes to form a coalition that will make him Germany’s next chancellor.
Merkel’s CDU-CSU conservative bloc slumped to its worst ever result in Sunday’s general election with 24.1 percent of the vote, behind Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) at 25.7 percent.
