But following an election that saw the rise of smaller parties -- most notably the far right -- her fourth term will probably be an eventful one in ways she would not wish for. Early exit polls show the Union parties (Merkel's CDU and sister party CSU) in top place with just under 33 percent. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), coalition partner to the Union parties, finished a distant second, with just over 20 percent of the vote. Before election day, all of the remaining mainstream parties -- SPD, Greens and FDP – had seemed open to the idea of joining a coalition. Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU, had already announced his intention of driving the Union parties further to the right in the post-election coalition negotiations.

Source: Huffington Post September 25, 2017 01:18 UTC