Merkel wins fourth term, nationalists strong in Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc won a lacklustre victory in Germany’s national election Sunday while the anti-migrant, nationalist Alternative for Germany party managed a triumphant entry into parliament, projections showed.
Merkel’s main centre-left rivals, the Social Democrats, were set for their worst result since World War II. The party, led by Merkel’s challenger Martin Schulz, vowed immediately to leave her coalition government and go into opposition.
The outcome puts Merkel on course for a fourth term as chancellor — but means that she has a tricky task in forming a new coalition government.
Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and early counting, showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and their Bavaria-only allies, the Christian Social Union, winning around 33 per cent of the vote — down from 41.5 per cent four years ago. It was one of their worst post-war showings.
Schulz’s Social Democrats were seen trailing far behind, with 20-21 per cent support. That would be the outright worst post-war for the party, which has served since 2013 as the junior
partner in a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties under Merkel.
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 that we have had an extremely challenging parliamentary term behind us.”
“We have a mandate to form a new government, and no government can be formed against us,” Merkel added.
“We want to win back AfD voters
by solving problems, by taking account of their concerns and fears, and above all with good policies,” Merkel added.
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, which was set to win up to 13.5 per cent of the vote.
AfD capitalized on discontent with established politicians but particularly targeted those angry over the influx of more than one million mostly Muslim migrants into Germany in the past two years under Merkel.
AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland vowed that “we will take our country back” and promised to “chase” Merkel.
“This is a 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.
Another big winner Sunday was the pro-business Free Democratic Party, which was set to return to parliament with 10.5 per cent of the vote.
The party was Merkel’s coalition partner in her second term from 2009-13 but lost all its seats at the last election.
“In a country that is big on schadenfreude, our comeback is an encouraging message — after failure, a new beginning is possible,” party leader Christian Lindner told supporters.