The centre-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany’s national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.

Election officials confirmed early Monday that a count of all 299 electorates showed the Social Democrats won 25.9% of the vote – ahead of 24.1% for the Union bloc.

The Greens environmental party came third with 14.8% followed by the pro-business Free Democrats with 11.5%.

The two parties have already hinted that they are willing to discuss forging a three-way alliance with either of their two bigger rivals in order to form a government.