2005 Bundestag Election

The 2005 German Bundestag election, following an early election called in a political gamble by SPD Chancellor Gerard Scröder, the country returned a split decision which required months of negotiations to attempt to form a government.

Following the SPD's loss in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election Schröder called this political gamble election in order to catch the CDU/CSU, who had a strong lead before the election was called, off-guard.

Likewise, the SPD was through this early election seeking to maintain political support for their methodical agenda of Deregulation—and it almost payed off as because both the 7 year incumbent Chancellor Schröder and CDU/CSU Leader Angela Merkel claimed victory on Election night

However, while the result—where Schroder's SPD and Merkel's CDU held each other to a draw due to winning their respective heartlands—was a split decision, the growth Die Linke presented an issue as either it, or the Greens needed to be in government for a Government to hold a majority.

The CDU/CSU was unable to come to an accord with the Greens following the election, and it was an anathema for the SPD to coalition with Die Linke, so come October—following SPD & CDU/CSU negociations—the second Grand SPD-CDU/CSU coalition, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, was formed.