CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel was returned to power with her centre-right coalition of choice last night despite a drop in support for her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The German leader was rescued from a second grand coalition by a record result for the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), her future coalition partner.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is heading for the opposition benches after 11 years in power, following its worst result in its post-war history.
After four years in a left-right grand coalition with the SPD, Dr Merkel’s new administration with the FDP will have a comfortable majority of at least 16 seats, according to exit polls last night.
The effect of a mundane election campaign was reflected in voter turnout: down five points to a post-war low of 72.5 per cent.
Exit poll results last night showed a clear trend: German voters punished the CDU and SPD for their compromise-filled efforts in the grand coalition, while rewarding the three smaller parties with record results.
Accepting victory, Dr Merkel expressed the hope that she would remain “chancellor of all Germans, even those who didn’t vote for me”.
“I don’t want to spoil the mood,” she told supporters in a hoarse voice. “Enjoy tonight because a lot of work awaits us.”
Conceding defeat yesterday evening, SPD challenger Frank Walter Steinmeier announced he would head the party’s new opposition parliamentary party in the Bundestag.
But after polling just 23 per cent, down 11 per cent from the last election, Germany’s oldest political party is facing the worst identity crisis in its 146-year history.
“The result is a bitter day for German social democracy, there’s no way around it. It’s a bitter defeat,” said Mr Steinmeier. “But when I look back over last 11 years in government we made this a more open, outward-looking country. We have to make sure that we don’t march back to the 1990s.”
The star of the evening was FDP leader Guido Westerwelle, who has returned his party to power in style with a record 15 per cent.
Mr Westerwelle has a strong hand in looming coalition talks: elected on a mandate for radical tax reform and middle-class tax cuts, he will up the ante on Dr Merkel’s own promise of moderate tax relief to stimulate the economy.
Echoing the sober tone of the CDU leader, Mr Westerwelle said: “We are thrilled but we won’t get above ourselves because now the work begins for us and for Germany.”
Facing rising unemployment, record borrowing and empty coffers, the government will soon be forced to make unpopular spending cuts.
The coalition is expected to lift a 2020 shut-down on nuclear power in Germany and give fresh impetus to Germany’s unpopular military deployment in Afghanistan.
It was a good evening, too, for the Left Party. With nearly 12 per cent support, up four points, the party of disaffected SPD voters and reformed former East German communists has become fourth-strongest force in German politics.
The Greens slid into fifth place despite gaining two points to a record 11 per cent support.
After an election in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, the CDU-FDP was struggling last night to repeat the federal election result.