German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the result of the general election "bitter" for his party after it was projected to come in third and win only around 16.5% of the vote.
"This is a bitter election result for the SPD, this is a defeat. It's a result that we will have to put behind us," Scholz said in a speech at the party's headquarters.
Scholz congratulated Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz on the victory but slammed strong support for far-right Alternative Fur Deutschland (AfD) as unacceptable. "I’ll never come to terms with this," he insisted.
