BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has won the parliamentary elections in Germany with 41.5 percent of the votes, while its main rival, the Social Democrats, bagged 25.7 percent of the votes.
According to preliminary final results, Merkel secured herself a third term and led the conservatives to their best result in more than two decades as her party finished only five seats short of an absolute majority in the lower house.
However, the CDU’s junior coalition allies, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), received only 4.8 percent of the votes, which is below the five percent threshold required to gain a seat in parliament.
Merkel has urged her party to celebrate after leading the conservatives to their best result in over 20 years.
“We will do everything we can in the next four years to make them successful ones for Germany,” Merkel said at the CDU headquarters in Berlin.
Merkel said it was too early to consider coalitions. “We will talk about this tomorrow when we know the final results – but we can surely celebrate tonight, as we have done a great job.”
