Post-election rifts emerge in Germany’s centre-right alliance

Growing dissent within conservative ranks is diminishing Armin Laschet's hopes of keeping his party in power

A leading German conservative has made a public show of congratulating the Social Democrats' candidate on winning Sunday's national election in a sign of division within the centre-right alliance of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel after it plunged to historic losses.

Markus Soder, the head of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) sister party, said Olaf Scholz was frontrunner to become Germany's next leader, undermining the claims of the CDU-CSU's Armin Laschetthat the 25.7%-24.1% result was too narrow to amount to a clear mandate and he could still form a future-oriented coalition".