German Chancellor Angela Merkel has won a third term in elections, but her conservatives may be forced to govern in a “grand coalition” with the centre-left Social Democrats (SDP), exit polls say.
The surveys came minutes after polls closed in Germany where tens of millions of voters cast their ballots for Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
Merke hailed the “super result” and said “together we will do everything in the next four years to again make them successful years for Germany”.
Public opinion polls in the past week had shown Germany’s three major left-of-centre parties running neck-and-neck with Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner in the current government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
According to the polls, the FDP got 4.7 percent of the vote, short of the five percent needed to retain seats in parliament.
Withe FDP falling short, a coalition of Germany’s two biggest parties, the CDU and SPD, seems likely, in a reprise of the tandem that ruled Germany from 2005-2009, during Merkel’s first term as chancellor, Al Jazeera informs.
“It was to be expected,” said teacher Judith Rang, who voted for the Social Democrats. “But I’m relatively indifferent. I hope that the FDP is out [of the Bundestag].”
