Germany will vote today (26 September) to elect the new chancellor, who will guide the country’s economy to recover from the Covid-19 crisis and bring the nation on the growth path. Germans will vote to elect the members of the lower house of the parliament, the Bundestag. Total eligible voters in the country are over 60 million, voting to elect members for at least 598 seats across 299 districts.

At present, the country is led by chancellor Angela Merkel. Mrs Merkel, the outgoing chancellor, has led German politics for over 16 years. She became Germany’s first female chancellor in 2005 and led the country on the road to social and economic growth making Germany, one of the global superpowers and largest economy in the Eurozone.

Key Candidate and political parties in the contest

According to the last poll survey, three main parties are in the contest to win the election and choose a new chancellor:

• Christian Democratic Union (CDU): Headed by the Angela Merkel, Conservative (CDU) held a stronghold in German politics for decades along with its ally Christian Social Union. In the present scenario, CDU leader Armin Laschet is one of the major contendor for the top post. He has received good support from the German people. However, his election campaign was impacted after he was pictured laughing in the flood-hit town, completely damaged because of flooding. Still, he is not out of the race and could become the new chancellor.

• Social Democratic Party (SPD): The centre-left party was part of the last government’s coalition partners. Olaf Scholz is the party candidate who is the current finance minister of Germany. He has received good backing from people who consider him a suitable successor for the top post as he already has administration experience and serving as MP since 1998.

• Greens: The left-wing party has campaigned around the issue of climate change and social justice. The party has been receiving growing support from the people and, at one point, was leading all the opinion polls.  Annalena Baerbock is the party candidate and the only woman in the race.

• Free Democrats (FDP) and Alternative for Germany (AfD) are other political parties in the race that could be decisive in forming the collation government.

Impact on Stock market

After coming to power, the new government’s biggest challenge will be bringing Germany back on the growth path. The economy has been severely impacted due to the Covid-19 crisis. Therefore, any breakthrough decision that brings back industrial and economic growth might be positive for the blue-chip index, DAX. Also, coalition-led government policies and regulations on climate change will be decisive in guiding the stock market.