Merkel to win 4th term as German chancellor, exit polls show

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BERLIN. KAZINFORM The German Chancellor and leader of Christian Democratic Union won her fourth general election Sunday on a day marked by the implosion of the Social Democratic challenge to her and the rise of a new political force within the Bundestag: that of the ultrarightist and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, EFE reports.

According to projections by the public television channels after the polls closed, the CDU headed by the 63-year-old Angela Merkel and its allied Social Christian Union in Bavaria garnered about 32.9 percent of the votes, eight points below its percentage total four years ago but 12 percent higher than the Social Democratic Party managed to muster.

Under the leadership of former European Parliament President Martin Schulz, the SPD turned in its worst result in a general election since World War II, polling about 20.6 percent of the German vote.

Meanwhile, the Islamophobic discourse of the AfD received the support of 13 percent of the electorate, according to those projections, evidence that a significant portion of the population rejects Germany's welcoming more than 1.3 million asylum requests from foreigners - many of them from wartorn Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East - since 2015.

This is the first time that a party or movement of that type has gained seats in the Bundestag since the 1950s and, although it had already managed to secure seats in 13 of the country's 16 regional legislatures, its presence now on the federal level will augment its clout and public financing.

Despite the jubilation among supporters gathered at CDU headquarters in Berlin, Merkel admitted that she had hoped for "a better result" and promised to "reconquer" the voters who cast their ballots for the AfD.

Schulz said that he would not resign in the wake of the SPD's terrible results, adding that he had the "full support of the party," which had elected him its leader last March, and saying that he would continue at the party's helm and "renew" it.

The conservative block, however, did manage to reach its "strategic objective," Merkel said, meaning that it will not have to reach out to the SPD to form another coalition government, given that the SPD has said that it will now go into opposition and - if that proves to be true - there is only one viable majority coalition that is possible.

 

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