Germany’s Merkel wins fourth term but braces for coalition talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in the country’s parliamentary elections Sunday. But a decline in voter support left her conservative bloc seeking coalition talks and paved the way for a nationalist, anti-migration party to enter parliament for the first time. With all 299 constituencies reporting, Merkel’s Christian Democratic alliance with the Christian Social Union won 33 percent of the vote, resulting in 246 seats. The ruling party needs 316 parliamentary seats to form a government. The center-left Social Democrats, which has governed with Merkel since 2013 in a “grand coalition,” secured 20.5 percent of the vote. After Sunday’s election, Martin Schulz, the party’s leader, ended the coalition and vowed to join the opposition. The four-year old Alternative for Germany party emerged third with 12.6 percent of the vote. The party’s campaign centered on criticizing Merkel’s 2015 decision to allow an estimated 1 million refugees into Germany. One of the party’s leaders, Alexander Gauland, promised to hound Merkel and to “take our country and people back.” Analysts say Merkel’s only option now lies in forming a three-way coalition with the Free Democratic Party and the Greens, a move that has never been tried in the country’s parliament. Merkel admitted the election results were not as good as expected but said she believes the parties can agree on a coalition by Christmas. “There cannot be a coalition government built against us,” Merkel said.