{"id":356630,"date":"2017-09-24T17:13:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T17:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=356630"},"modified":"2017-11-10T11:07:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:07:56","slug":"germany-elections-merkel-wins-fourth-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/09\/germany-elections-merkel-wins-fourth-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany elections: Merkel wins fourth term"},"content":{"rendered":"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term in federal elections, exit polls suggest.<\/p>\n
Her conservative CDU\/CSU alliance has won 32.5% of the vote, remaining the largest party in Germany’s parliament, according to the ARD poll.<\/p>\n
Its coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, has gained 20%.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the AfD, a right-wing nationalist, anti-Islam party, was on track to win 13.5%, emerging as Germany’s third-strongest party.<\/p>\n
Addressing supporters, Mrs Merkel said she hoped for a “better result” and talked about “extraordinary challenges”.<\/p>\n
She added that she would listen to the “concerns and anxieties” of AfD voters in other to regain them.<\/p>\n
The numbers mean that the SPD, led by Martin Schulz, has fallen to a new post-World War Two low.<\/p>\n
Mr Schulz said the result was the end of the “grand coalition” with Mrs Merkel’s alliance.<\/p>\n
“It’s a difficult and bitter day for social democrats in Germany. We haven’t reached our objective,” he told supporters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AfD’s performance, better than what opinion polls had forecast, means that the right-wing party will have a seat at the Bundestag for the first time.<\/p>\n
The party’s leader, Frauke Petry,\u00a0said on Twitter (in German)\u00a0that Germany has experienced an incomparable “political earthquake”.<\/p>\n
The exit poll put the Liberal FDP with 10.5%; the Greens with 9.5% and the Die Linke (The Left) with 9%.<\/p>\n
Mrs Merkel will now have to search for new coalition partners – a process that could take months.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term in federal elections, exit polls suggest. Her conservative CDU\/CSU alliance has won 32.5% of the vote, remaining the largest party in Germany’s parliament, according to the ARD poll. Its coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, has gained 20%. Meanwhile, the AfD, a right-wing nationalist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[5208,11340,11179],"yoast_head":"\n