With just over 35 percent, the CDU suffered its second worst federal election returns on Sunday. Only in 1949 during the first election for the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, did the CDU receive a lower percentage of the vote with 31 percent. But the head-to-head race between the CDU and SPD, which hovers around 34 percent, is unlike other previous elections in its near parity. A similar photo finish only occurred in 1972 when less than one percent point separated the SPD with 45.8 percent and the CDU 44.9 percent.