Germany’s center-left Social Democrats on Sunday narrowly won their first national election since 2005, ending 16 years of conservative-led rule under Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to preliminary election results. According to data published by Germany’s federal election commissioner on Monday morning, Social Democrats (SPD) won 25.7 percent of the vote, ahead of 24.1 percent for Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc. The Greens came in at 14.8 percent—their best ever result—and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) were on 11.5 percent. The Social Democrats’ candidate, Olaf Scholz, said the election outcome was “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany.” Scholz, 63, a former mayor of Hamburg, must now reach out to the smaller parties to attempt to form a coalition and secure a majority in parliament. He said he hoped to do so before Christmas, however, his conservative rival Armin Laschet, 60, said …