LyrArc Article Gist
Patience and remaining undeterred with SPD at 15% just months before the election helped SPD'S Scholz to win. There was also a carefully planned campaign around Scholz, unity in the SPD behind Scholz. Scholz and SPD realized that there was a major opportunity to win confidence of Germans in the pandemic aid packages for Germany and the European Union that Scholz put together. Scholz took charge chairing meetings when Merkel was in isolation. In this way he not the outgoing chancellor Merkel was seen as the architect of economic recovery from the blow of the pandemic. 

Percentages are deceiving including the drop to 15% for SPD. Scholz pointed to public fatigue with the two major parties and need for change had led to shift to Greens, and other parties. By working with Greens to develop a common approach based on borrowing to invest in infrastructure and climate change Scholz realized he could both tap into skills of a younger generation that had gone to the Greens and build Germany along lines that also tackled climate change. This created a new and real option for Germany- the experience and new zeal for workers and families of the changing SPD under Esken and Scholz with the energy and zeal for tackling climate change of the Greens under Habeck and Baerbock.

As a map of Germany in the NYT shows on September 28, the numbers can be deceiving. Except for Bavaria in the south most of Germany's regions including cities of Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg voted for the SPD or the Greens. Most of the map is red color of the SPD, with small densely populated pockets in cities Cologne and Berlin for Greens. Apart from Bavaria and Thuringia-Saxony, the election was won by Greens SPD by big margin.