Chancellor Olaf Scholz regretted the poor performance of the SPD in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, but still thinks an SPD-led government is possible.

“We would all have wished for a better result in North Rhine-Westphalia,” said the SPD politician on Monday evening on the “RTL Direkt” program. The SPD did not manage to move from second to first place and immediately replace the incumbent Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) in terms of the election result.

Now we will look again at the possibilities for forming a government. “That’s also the case: The parties that make up the federal government in Berlin, here in Germany, have a majority in the state parliament. Maybe something will come of it.”

First of all, Wüst will hold talks. “Others will do the same.” It has happened quite often in Germany’s history that the head of government has not been chosen by the strongest party. “In this respect, it would now be surprising if one were to say that this cannot be the case.”