German Election: Merkel Wins Fourth Term

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term while nationalists have made a historic surge in federal elections.

While Merkel has won the election, her conservative CDU/CSU bloc has seen its worst result in almost seventy years. The alliance, between the Christian Democrat (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), saw the worst election result since 1949, when national elections were held in Germany for the first time after World War Two. The CDU-CSU garnered 33% of the vote, the SPD won 20.5%; AfD attained 12.6%; the FDP got 10.7%, the Left won 9.2% while the Greens attained 8.9%. The CDU-CSU will remain the largest party in parliament. Its current coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, says that it will go into opposition after historic losses. Meanwhile the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won its first seats and is set to be the third party, a result that sparked some protests. On Sunday night, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the right-wing, anti-Islam party’s headquarters in Berlin, with some holding placards saying “Refugees are welcome.” Protests were also held in several other cities, including Cologne and Frankfurt.

Addressing supporters, Mrs Merkel, who has been in the job of Chancellor for twelve years, disclosed that she had hoped for a “better result,” adding that she would listen to the “concerns, worries and anxieties” of voters of the AfD in order to win them back. She also stated that her government would have to deal with economic and security issues as well as addressing the root causes of migration – one of the main reasons behind the AfD’s result.