Merkel heads to 4th term, but far-right gains foothold
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc won a lackluster victory in Germany’s national election Sunday while the anti-migrant, nationalist Alternative for Germany party managed a triumphant entry into parliament.
Merkel’s main centerleft rivals, the Social Democrats, slid to their worst result since WorldWar II, projections showed. The party, led by Merkel’s challengerMartin Schulz, vowed to leave her coalition government and go into opposition.
The outcome puts Merkel on course for a fourthtermas chancellor— but means that she likely faces the tricky task of forming a new coalition government with two new partners. Merkel acknowledged that it would take time, but said that “we live in stormy times” and other parties should show responsibility.
“I have the intention of achieving a stable government in Germany, and that has been a hallmark” of the country, she said.
Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and partial counting, showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and their Bavariaallies, the Christian Social Union, winning around 33 percent of the vote — down from 41.5 percent four years ago. It was one of their weakest postwar showings.
Schulz’s Social Democrats were trailing far behind, with just under 21 percent support. That would be the worst postwar result for the party, which has served since 2013 as the junior partner in a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties underMerkel.
Merkel was greeted at her party’s headquarters by supporters applauding and chanting “Angie!”
“Of course, we would have preferred a better result, that is completely clear,” she said. “But we mustn’t forget thatwe have had an extremely challenging parliamentary term behind us. Wehave a mandate to form a new government, and no government can be formed against us.”
Smaller parties were the chief beneficiaries of the erosion in support for Germany’s traditionally dominant parties— above all the right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, whose support was just over 13 percent.
AfD capitalized on discontent with established politicians but particularly targeted those angry over the influx of more than 1 million mostly Muslim migrants into Germany in the past two years under Merkel.
AfDco-leader Alexander Gauland vowed that “we will take our country back” and promised to “chase” Merkel.
“This is big day in our party’s history. We have entered the Bundestag and we will change this country,” Gauland said.
Big cheers went up at AfD’s election party after exit polls showed them finishing in third place. Some supporters chanted “AfD! AfD!” and others started singing the German national anthem.
Outsides, hundreds of anti-AfD protesters shouted “all Berlin hates the AfD,” “Nazi pigs,” and other slogans, while several protesters threw bottles as policekeptthemaway from the building.
Another big winner Sunday was the pro-business Free Democratic Party, which was set to return to parliament with some 10.5 percent of the vote. The party was Merkel’s coalition partner in her second term from 2009-2013 but lost all its seats at the last election.
“In a country that is big on schadenfreude, our comeback is an encouragingmessage— after failure, a new beginning is possible,” party leader Christian Lindner told supporters.
The traditionally leftleaning Greens were seen winning around 9 percent of the vote and the Left Party also 9 percent, meaning both stay in parliament.