Germany’s main political parties – the center-left SPD and the CDU/CSU conservative bloc – are to embark on separate talks on Sunday with a pair of other parties to see which can form a three-way coalition to lead Germany for the next legislative term.

The meetings come a week after an election that saw the Social Democrats (SPD) emerge victoriously and the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) suffer its worst-ever result.

Although the SPD won the largest vote share, each of the two parties can, in principle, only lead a coalition with the support of the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business FDP.

This is a necessary prerequisite to achieving a majority in parliament.

Representatives of the SPD will engage in bilateral talks with the Greens and the FDP, respectively, on Sunday.

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The CDU/CSU conservative bloc is scheduled to have talks with the FDP, with which it has governed in the past, later on Sunday.

The two smaller parties, which have very different political agendas, already had talks on Friday and have signaled an ability to reach some form of consensus in a larger coalition.