Berlin : Chancellor Angela Merkel was widely expected to win a fourth term in office as Germans went to the polls on Sunday 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.
Merkel campaigned on her record as chancellor for 12 years, emphasising the country’s record-low unemployment, strong economic growth, balanced budget and growing international importance.
That’s helped keep her conservative bloc well atop the polls ahead of today’s election over the center-left Social Democrats of challenger Martin Schulz. Schulz voted together with his wife Inge in the city hall of his hometown of Wuerselen in western Germany. “I hope that as many people as possible will cast their vote today and strengthen the democratic future of Germany,” Schulz told reporters.
Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Party and its sister party, the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, have governed the country for the last four years with the Social Democrats in a so-called “grand coalition.” Most forecasts suggest that coalition will win another majority in today’s election outcome, but several different coalition government combinations could be possible. Pollsters said earlier in the week that many of the 61.5 million who were eligible to vote had remained undecided until the very last moment.
That included Bernhard Sommerfeld, a 62 -year-old book seller, who cast his vote on Sunday morning in Berlin after the opening of the polling stations at 8 am (local time).
