With all 299 constituencies reporting, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the CSU came out ahead in Germany's national election on Sunday Sep 24,2017, with 33 % of the vote.
Rival Social Democrats (SPD) led by Martin Schulz tumbled to a mere 20.5 %, while the Green and Left parties remained about the same as they did in 2013, each with 8.9 and 9.2 %, respectively.
The only real success stories of the night were for the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). After failing to make the 5% hurdle to enter the Bundestag last time around, the FDP managed a 10.7 % to cement its comeback.
Although these results mean the CDU will remain Germany's largest party, it still represents a substantial loss for the conservatives, who managed 41.5 % in 2013.
With a three-way coalition looking to be the likely solution to avoid a minority government, Merkel is about to begin a far less stable administration than in her past three terms.
Far-right AfD enters German parliament and will be the 3rd largest party
For the first time in the modern history of the Federal Republic of Germany, voters have elected a far right party to the country's parliament . But what does "far-right" mean and how will political culture change? The answers are both very complicated and really simple.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) promotes itself as a patriotic, democratic, conservative party. However, critics from across the political spectrum say it's an association of right-wing extremists
On election day, the party listed seven reasons to vote for the AfD on its website – the first four were about asylum seekers, immigration and Islam. Party platform notwithstanding, the AfD actually offers only one thing to many people: fear of and hostility toward those considered foreigners.
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