Merkel Wins Easy Re-Election

Absolute Majority Within Reach

by Spiegel

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives won a clear election victory on Sunday, granting her a third term. Results show that she may have won enough votes for an absolute majority, though she has given no indication as to how she will proceed.

Angela Merkel's conservatives won a resounding victory in Sunday's general election, sharply increasing their share of the vote by some eight points to around 42 percent and putting her on track for a third term.

That result, which would be the strongest result for the conservatives since 1990, could be enough to give Merkel an absolute majority on her own. Public broadcaster ARD predicted that her conservatives could have a slim absolute majority of four seats in parliament. But the final outcome is still unclear.

But she may have to form an alliance with the rival center-left Social Democrats. Her junior coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democratic Party, saw its support slump so dramatically that it may not make the five percent threshold needed for parliamentary representation.

"We will do everything to ensure that the next four years will be successful ones for Germany," a beaming Merkel told ecstatic supporters. "We will now wait for the election outcome, it's too early to say how we will proceed. We will discuss all this tomorrow in our leadership meetings. But we can already celebrate today because we did great."

Her SPD rival, Peer Steinbrück, told supporters: "The ball is in Frau Merkel's court, she has to find herself a majority."

An alliance with the SPD, a so-called "grand coalition" of the two biggest parties, would be a repeat of the right-left alliance with which she governed in her first term from 2005 until 2009.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union party and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, were at 42.1 percent, up sharply from 33.8 percent in 2009, an ARD network TV projection based on actual results showed after polling stations closed at 6 p.m. CET.

A TV projection by ZDF showed a similar result with the conservatives at 42.3 percent.

"This is the FDP's bitterest defeat in decades," said Christian Lindner, a senior member of the party leadership.

Record Low for FDP

ARD had the FDP at 4.7 percent, while ZDF had them at 4.5 percent, a disastrous result for the party, a traditional kingmaker in German politics, which has been in parliament continually since 1949.

The SPD was at around 25.8 percent, according to ARD, up slightly from 23.0 percent in 2009. The Greens were at 8.1, compared with 10.7 percent in 2009.

In a significant development, the anti-euro Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which was formed in February and calls for an "orderly dismantling of the euro zone," came close to five percent. The ARD had them at 4.9 percent and the ZDF at 4.8 percent.

European Partners Favor 'Grand Coalition'

Many of Germany's European partners regard a third term for Merkel with the SPD as her coalition partner as the best possible outcome. It ensures continuity at the helm of Europe's most powerful economy and it will likely force Merkel to put a bigger focus on stimulating economic growth and curbing unemployment in the crisis-ravaged euro zone.

A grand coalition would also, thanks to its overwhelming majority in parliament, strengthen Merkel's hand in managing the euro crisis because it would lessen the threat posed by backbench rebellions against future European rescue measures.

With the SPD in her coalition, she would no longer face a hostile Bundesrat, Germany's upper legislative chamber, and she may even be able to muster two-thirds majorities needed to change the German constitution if future changes to Europe's institutions should warrant that.

Her hands will, however, remain tied by rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, which will rule next month on the European Central Bank's bond-buying policy, which put a lid on the crisis when it was announced last year.