The real losers of the election were the Social Democrats, with a drop in support of 11% that is without precedent in the very stable history of German electoral behavior.  Some on the left claim that the SPD’s catastrophic result was the product of too close an engagement with liberalism and deregulation.  According to this view, the party is now paying the price for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s successful attempts at economic reform in the early 2000’s.  It seems more likely that the party was punished for its lackluster electoral campaign, and for the negativity with which it tried to present the outcome of the election (the center-right coalition) as a threat to social peace in Germany.
Skutečným vítězem kampaně, jehož podpora vyskočila až na 14,5% a jehož pozice v parlamentu bude určovat ráz nové koaliční vlády, se stala FDP jakožto dědička klasického německého liberalismu. Kampaň založila na slibu snížení daní a deregulace, aby stimulovala hospodářský růst, který Německo potřebuje k vybřednutí z hospodářské krize.