Angela Merkel wins historic third term in German elections

The Telegraph ^ | 22 Sep 2013 | Jeevan Vasagar

[mandaladon]

Angela Merkel vowed that she would deliver more “successful years for Germany” as exit polls indicated a commanding lead for her party over the main opposition. Angela Merkel is heading for a third term as Germany’s chancellor, as exit polls showed she could even be on course for the historic achievement of an absolute majority in the country’s parliament. An early projection by the state broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening showed Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) winning 301 seats in the 598-seat Bundestag, enough to form a government without a coalition partner. Later projections suggested, however, that she could fall just short of an absolute majority. Exit polls and early results put the CDU on 42.5 per cent of the vote, a lead of 17 points over the main opposition. It had been expected that Mrs Merkel would be forced into a “grand coalition” with her main socialist opponents, the Social Democrats. The early results suggested that she might avoid this. “This is a super result,” Mrs Merkel, 59, told cheering supporters. “We will do all we can in the next four years together to make them successful years for Germany. It is too early to say how we will proceed but today we should celebrate.” The last time a party won an outright majority in a German election was in 1957, under the Christian Democrat leader Konrad Adenauer. Another four-year term for Mrs Merkel, would ultimately see her eclipse Margaret Thatcher as the European Union’s longest serving female head of government. The eurozone crisis has hit the careers of other European leaders, but not that of the Protestant pastor’s daughter from East Germany.

[tellw]

A CDU-Green coalition could happen (there was a CDU-FDP-Green “Jamaica Coalition” that governed one of the states).