On Sunday, Germans went to the polls to decide who would be Angela Merkel’s successor as Chancellor.

The centre-left Social Democrats party, lead by Olaf Scholz, have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany’s national election with 25.9 per cent, beating the centre-right Union bloc (CDU) which received 24.1 per cent in a closely fought race. The Greens came third with 14.8 per cent, followed by the pro-business Free Democrats with 11.5 per cent.

With a very close result, it could be weeks or even months before a government is formed. But it is already clear that both the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens added more than five per cent to their vote, while the CDU had its worst performance in the post-war period. The SPD and CDU are very close in votes, hardly enough for the SPD to form a grand coalition.

Mr Scholz now needs to reach out to the smaller parties in an effort to form a coalition.

READ MORE: No tears lost over Angela Merkel as Greeks look back on the era of the quitting chancellor

CDU leader Armin Laschet, Ms Merkel’s replacement, said he “would do everything possible to build a conservative-led government because Germans now need a future coalition that modernises our country.”

This could mean that Chancellor Merkel, who had lead the country for the past 16 years and had announced her retirement in 2018, may remain chancellor in a caretaker role until a coalition is formed.

Ms Merkel may become the longest-serving Chancellor in German history if a new government is not formed before Christmas.

One of the most controversial periods of her leadership was her handling of the Greek debt crisis, something which former European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker criticized her for last week. He told Euronews on Thursday that “her biggest failure was the reluctance she showed during the Greek crisis because of her hesitations and her reluctance, we were losing time. Greece could have been helped earlier.”

Juncker said he often clashed with Merkel about Greece because her own parliamentary group and the German media “did not respect the dignity of the Greek people.”