Slight edge for Social Democrats in race to succeed Merkel in German election, projection shows

“I think it would be absurd to give an exact date. But I, and we, should do everything to be ready before Christmas. A bit sooner would be good, too,” Olaf Scholz, the chancellor candidate of the Social Democratic Party, said on German television after projections showed his party in a close race with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, now led by Armin Laschet.