Angela Merkel wins fourth term as German chancellor

Angela Merkel has won re-election for a fourth term as chancellor of Germany.

Her party CDU/CSU received 33% of the votes, representing a majority.

CDU/CSU is an alliance of two political parties, the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union.

The social democratic, SPD, won 20% of the votes while right-wing party, AfD, is on expected to have the third highest return with 13.5%.

Merkel, who now has to carry out the tough task of building a coalition, said, “The CDU would have hoped for better result, but we mustn’t forget – looking back at an extraordinary challenge – that we nevertheless achieved our strategic objectives: we are the strongest party. We have mandate to form the new government and we will form the new government.

“We have had 12 years of governmental responsibility and it was not a foregone conclusion that we would be largest party again. But this was also an election that saw the arrival in parliament of the AfD.

“We will conduct a very thorough analysis; we want to regain those voters who voted for the AfD, to discover their concerns and worries. We want to win back the AfD voters above all through good politics.

“We need to work now for a just and a free country. That means we need to bring together all of the EU countries to fight against the causes of migration and to fight illegal immigration. It is clear that the topic of security is as much a worry for people as the topic of prosperity.”