Chancellor Angela Merkel’s triumphant conservative party is considering who to team up with to form a new German coalition after their election victory.
Her conservative bloc got 41.5% – their best result since 1994, but just short of a clear majority.
The election was a shock for their liberal partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), who failed to get any seats.
A coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) is seen as most likely – but only after hard bargaining.
Mrs Merkel told a news conference on Monday that she had already contacted the SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel.
“We are, of course, open for talks”, she said, adding that Mr Gabriel had told her the SPD must first hold a meeting of its leaders on Friday.
The SPD came second, with just under 25.7%. In 2005-2009 they were in a “grand” coalition with Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the CSU – but correspondents say that the experience has made them wary about working with the CDU/CSU again.
The SPD suffered a big drop in its electoral support in 2009. That result was widely seen as punishment for having teamed up with Mrs Merkel and been made to look very much the junior partner.
At the news conference Mrs Merkel also said that “our European policy course will not change”.
She said Germany’s labour market reforms in the past decade were a model for other European countries.
Her convincing election victory is seen as proof that many Germans like her insistence on austerity and budget discipline for heavily indebted countries such as Greece.
She expressed regret that the FDP had failed to make it into parliament – the first time it has suffered such a blow in Germany’s post-war history.
