The Greens are now kingmakers in the state, with the most likely outcome of Sunday’s state elections being a coalition with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), which were the clear winners with 35.7%.

A three-way centre-left coalition is possible, but seen as unlikely as it would exclude the CDU, which beat the Social Democrats (SPD) by a larger margin than polls had predicted.

A senior lawmaker from the Greens in the national parliament, Katharina Dröge, said the CDU leader in North Rhine Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, would have to think carefully about his environmental policies before any possible coalition negotiations began.

“Hendrik Wüst must in any case say goodbye to policies that mean slowing down the energy transition,” she said on broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Monday.

The Greens won 18.2% in the poll, according to provisional final results, coming third behind the CDU, and the Social Democrats on a disappointing 26.7%.

The Greens would “talk to all democratic parties” as preparations began for coalition talks, Dröge said.

CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja told broadcaster ZDF on Monday that he expected the next government in North Rhine Westphalia – which includes the large cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen and Dortmund – to be a coalition of his conservatives and the Greens.

The two were the clear winners and “the forming of a coalition should also follow this direction,” he said.

The CDU’s unexpectedly emphatic win meant a second election defeat in a week for the SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after their trouncing in Schleswig-Holstein last Sunday.

The SPD in party in North Rhine Westphalia have however not ruled out a centre-left coalition, with leader Thomas Kutschaty saying his party was “ready for talks.”