AfD is the party to watch. We’ll see how well they do with their platform.
I was wondering why I never heard of them, it’s cause they are BRAND new. I doubt they’ll do anything but cost Merkel votes. They are polling under the 5% they need to win list seats (they have districts like us but extra seats are doled out from a party list to make the result proportional, you vote twice, for a candidate in your district and for a list).
Merkel’s FDP coalition partners have seen their support eroded (this seems to happen all the time with JR. coalition partners, the similar Progressive Democrat party in Ireland actually went out of business) it’s a third of what it was in the election. They might not get 5% either, (you could also meet the threshold by winning 3 district seats, FDP has zero)
I don’t know if Merkel can win a majority on her own. That means a “Grand coalition” with the Socialists since the Socialists plus Greens won’t have a majority either and no one wants to work with the “former” communists, Die Linke.