Germany's Merkel wins 4th term

Chancellor to seek new coalition; rival party vows opposition

People in traditional Bavarian attire stand at a polling station before casting their votes in the German Parliament election in Unterwoessen, southern Germany, on Sunday.
People in traditional Bavarian attire stand at a polling station before casting their votes in the German Parliament election in Unterwoessen, southern Germany, on Sunday.

BERLIN -- Angela Merkel on Sunday won a fourth term as German chancellor in a federal election that also lifted a far-right party into Parliament.

Merkel's center-left challenger, Martin Schulz, conceded his Social Democrats had suffered a "crushing election defeat," with projections showing the party's worst performance in post-World War II Germany.

He vowed to take his party, the junior partner in Merkel's outgoing "grand coalition" of Germany's traditionally dominant parties, into opposition.

"We have a mandate to form a new government, and no government can be formed against us," Merkel told cheering supporters. She added that it wasn't a "matter of course" to finish first after 12 years in power, and that the past four years were "extremely challenging."

Stressing that "we live in stormy times" internationally, she declared: "I have the intention of achieving a stable government in Germany."

The biggest winner was the 4-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD. It finished third after a campaign that centered on shrill criticism of Merkel and her decision in 2015 to allow large numbers of migrants into Germany, but also harnessed wider discontent with established politicians.

Final results released shortly before 4 a.m. today showed Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and their Bavaria-only allies, the Christian Social Union, winning 33 percent of the vote -- down from 41.5 percent four years ago.

It was one of their weakest postwar showings.

Schulz's Social Democrats were trailing far behind, with 20.5 percent support, down from 25.7 percent in 2013 and undercutting their previous post-war low of 23 percent eight years ago.

Alternative for Germany won 12.6 percent of the vote. It was followed by the election's other big winner -- the pro-business Free Democratic Party, which returned to Parliament after a four-year break with 10.7 percent.

The Free Democrats were Merkel's coalition partners in her second-term government from 2009-13, but lost all their seats four years ago.

The Left Party took 9.2 percent of the vote, coming slightly ahead of the traditionally left-leaning Greens, who won 8.9 percent, completing a Parliament that now has six caucuses rather than the previous four.

All mainstream parties have ruled out working with Alternative for Germany and Merkel's conservatives won't form a coalition with the Left Party.

Alternative for Germany is the first party to the right of the conservatives to enter parliament in 60 years.

Merkel pledged a "thorough analysis, because we want to win back [Alternative for Germany] voters by solving problems, by taking account of their concerns and fears, and above all with good policies."

"We have a mandate to form a new government, and no government can be formed against us," Merkel added.

Alternative for Germany party co-leader Alexander Gauland vowed that "we will take our country back" and promised to "chase" Merkel.

"This is a big day in our party's history. We have entered the Bundestag and we will change this country," Gauland said.

Outside Alternative for Germany's election party in Berlin after the results were announced, at least 500 protesters shouted "all Berlin hates the AfD," "Nazi pigs," and other slogans, while several protesters threw bottles as police kept them away from the building.

Similar protests broke out in Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt, but police said they were mostly peaceful.

The Social Democrats were adamant Sunday night that they wouldn't continue to serve under Merkel.

"We have suffered a crushing election defeat," Schulz said. "It is completely clear that the role the voters have given us is as the opposition."

Referring to the Alternative for Germany's third-place finish, he said "there cannot be a far-right party leading the opposition in Germany."

If the Social Democrats stick to their pledge, Merkel will effectively have only one option to form her new government: teaming up with the Free Democrats and the Greens in an alliance that has never yet been tried in a national German government.

That combination -- known as a "Jamaica" coalition because the parties' colors match those of that Caribbean nation's flag -- will have to overcome the traditional distrust between both the Free Democrats and the Greens and between parts of Merkel's conservative bloc and the Greens.

"Jamaica is doable," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the Christian Democratic Union state prime minster of Saarland, told broadcaster ZDF.

The first task for Merkel is to forge a coalition that enables her to govern, a process that's likely to take months.

Once a government is in place, Merkel will face huge global expectations, such as shoring up the eurozone together with France, setting Europe's tone in its dealings with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, and dealing with the diesel-emissions crisis that threatens Germany's dominance in producing luxury cars.

Information for this article was contributed by Geir Moulson, Kirsten Grieshaber, Frank Jordans and David Rising of The Associated Press and Patrick Donahue, Rainer Buergin, Birgit Jennen, Arne Delfs, Stefan Nicola and Brian Parkin of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 09/25/2017

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