After the rapid vanishing of the “Schulz effect”，the SPD lost in three successive state elections. In the program for the federal election，Martin Schulz focused on social justice to highlight the SPD's characteristics，but to limited effect：the gap to the CDU/CSU continued to widen. The voting share of the CDU，the CSU and the SPD in the general election was the lowest since 1949，while the AfD became the third largest political force. This not only changed the political landscape considerably，but also added uncertainty to its future. The preliminary talks aimed at forming a - black，yellow and green - Jamaica coalition collapsed after the withdrawal of the liberal FDP （Free Democratic Party）. After mediation by the Federal President，the SPD，that had originally decided to enter the opposition，declared its readiness to hold preliminary talks with the CDU/CSU. Subsequently，an extraordinary SPD party conference agreed to launch formal coalition negotiations with the CDU/CSU. In terms of the Coalition Agreement's content，the SPD benefits the most，followed by the CSU，while the CDU benefits least. After the Agreement was approved by the members of the SPD and signed by the leaders of the three parties，the black-red coalition made a thrilling comeback. Yet this-fourth-Merkel government，which took six months to be formed，will face a number of challenges and risks.