'Hard Confrontations' Ahead With Far-Right Party In German Parliament, Merkel Says

Chancellor Angela Merkel may have won Germany's national election on Sunday, but her Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union faction only won a third of the vote, its poorest showing since 1949. Chancellor Angela Merkel is widely expected to win a fourth term in office as Germans go to the polls in an election that is also likely to see the farthest right-wing party in 60 years, the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany, win seats in parliament. Exit polls suggest Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc has finished first in Germany's election, putting her in a position to lead the country for a fourth term. WASHINGTON (CNN) — Angela Merkel has won a fourth term as German Chancellor, but with her party’s lead in parliament cut and the country facing a surge in support for the far right. Center-left challenger Martin Schulz, whose Social Democrats were the junior partners in Merkel's outgoing government, said shortly after exit polls showed his party headed for a historic election defeat Sunday that it would go into opposition. Schweisig said on ZDF television "for us it is very clear that the voters have given us the task of going ahead as the strongest party in opposition." The result offers Merkel just one route to govern: adding the environmentalist Greens to a coalition with the Free Democrats, her party's traditional allies with whom she governed from 2009 to 2013, in a so-called Jamaica coalition —so named as the party colors of the CDU/CSU, the Greens and FDP match those of the country's flag.
Exit polls indicate Merkel has won a fourth term in power, and that Alternative for Germany will enter the Bundestag for the first time as the third largest party.