
Germany is the biggest economy in Europe. What if it shifts left?
CNN
Angela Merkel is about to bow out as chancellor of Germany after 16 years, marking the start of a new era for Europe's largest economy.
The results of Sunday's election are hard to predict, and the formation of a government could take weeks or months to play out. But when the dust settles, polls indicate that the new chancellor could be the left-leaning Social Democratic Party's Olaf Scholz, who steered Germany's economy through the pandemic as finance minister in a coalition with Merkel. Meanwhile, the Greens could more than double their number of seats in parliament.
Scholz's SPD and the Greens could partner with the pro-business Free Democratic Party, gaining enough power to shift the country's economic agenda to the left. Taxation and spending could increase as political leaders double down on digitization and climate policy, while wariness about rising government debt may take a back seat.

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