German elections: Far-right wins MPs for first time in half a century

‘A far-right party has won seats in the German parliament for the first time in half a century, in an election that saw Angela Merkel returned as chancellor for the fourth contest straight.
The German chancellor pledged to address the concerns of people who voted for the anti-Muslim and anti-immigration AfD after initial results showed it winning 13.5 per cent of the vote – at the higher end of what was expected.
Meanwhile, the centre-left SPD – the current coalition partners of Ms Merkel’s CDU and a titan of German politics for 150 years – have hit a historic low of just 20 per cent, the social democratic party’s worst showing since the Second World War.
Small parties in general did well in the election and were all up on their 2013 results, with the the liberal FDP re-entering the Bundestag with 10.5 per cent of the vote, the Greens on 9.5 per cent, and the left-wing Die Linke on 9 per cent. Turnout and voter participation also appears to have climbed since the previous election, which was held in 2013.’
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