Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives beat their rivals on Sunday to win her a fourth term in an election that will also bring a far-right party into Germany’s parliament for the first time in more than half a century, exit polls showed.
After shock election results last year, from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union to the election of US President Donald Trump, many look to Merkel to rally a bruised liberal western order, tasking her with leading a post-Brexit Europe, Reuters reported.
Merkel’s conservative bloc won 32.5% of the vote, making them the largest parliamentary group, an exit poll for broadcaster ARD indicated. However, that was down from 41.5% in the last election, in 2013.
Support for their closest rivals, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) which are currently junior partners in a so-called “grand coalition” with Merkel, slumped to 20% — a new post-war low.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by finishing third and entering parliament for the first time with 13.5% of the vote.
