German legislators hold first meeting following election

Olaf Scholz (AP)

Germany’s newly-elected legislators are holding their first meetings as the main parties look to put together a new government and digest the results of an election that reduced outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc to its worst ever result.

The narrow winners of Sunday’s parliamentary election, the centre-left Social Democrats of Olaf Scholz, underlined their hopes of a quick start to talks with the likely kingmakers in a new government.