German election: Angela Merkel wins fourth term

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has won a fourth term in office after a general election that has surged an overtly nationalist party to enter parliament for the first time in decades.  Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union party secured 33 percent of the vote on Sunday, down about nine percent compared to the last election in 2013. Their main rival and current coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats led by Martin Schulz, got around 21 percent of the vote - their worst result in post-war Germany.

But the biggest change to Germany's political scene was the emergence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country's third biggest political force with 12.6 percent of the vote.
The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) bounced back into parliament with 10.1 percent of the vote, while the environmental Greens scored 9.2 percent and the leftist Die Linke picked up 8.9 percent. Addressing supporters at party headquarters, Merkel, who will now have to find new coalition partners, said she hoped for "better results".
"Let's not beat around the bush, of course we would have preferred a better result, that's completely clear," Merkel said after the announcement of the exit polls.
"But let's also not forget that we have just come out of an extraordinarily challenging legislative period," Merkel added.