Good-bye, Gerhard (we hope)

One of the more tedious politicians of our time, Gerhard Schroeder, appears to have gone down in defeat today, although not by a margin sufficient to make him completely extinct. Schroeder, not surprisingly, is not conceding this defeat and will try to form his own coalition government despite having the odds stacked against him. Here are the numbers:

An exit poll by ZDF public television showed Merkel’s Christian Democrats at 35.7 percent and the Social Democrats 33.6 percent. Merkel’s preferred coalition partner – the pro-business Free Democrats – had 10.4 percent, while current Schroeder coalition partner Greens received 8.2 percent.

ARD public television showed near-identical results, with Merkel’s party at 35.7 percent and the Social Democrats at 33.7 percent.

The Christian Democrats’ projected totals were considerably worse than expected. Merkel’s party consistently polled above 40 percent during the campaign.

It will be interesting to see how these exit polls stack up against the actual count.