00:39Germany: All smiles for Merkel and CDU after election win
Germany: All smiles for Merkel and CDU after election win
Jubilant members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gathered at their party's headquarters in Berlin Monday morning, hours after the party garnered nearly 42 percent of the vote in federal elections to retain power. The result is the strongest for conservatives since German reunification.
The CDU stood at 41.5 percent, its strongest showing since 1990 and just five seats short of the first absolute majority in the lower house of the Bundestag in over half a century. The victory means German Chancellor Angela Merkel will continue to lead Europe's largest economy for a third term.
Without an absolute majority, however, the CDU may need to reach out to the rival Social Democratic Party (SPD) in order to form a "grand coalition." The SPD garnered 25.7 percent of the vote.
Merkel worked with the SPD in a grand coalition during her first term as Chancellor, from 2005 to 2009.
00:39Germany: All smiles for Merkel and CDU after election win
Jubilant members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gathered at their party's headquarters in Berlin Monday morning, hours after the party garnered nearly 42 percent of the vote in federal elections to retain power. The result is the strongest for conservatives since German reunification.
The CDU stood at 41.5 percent, its strongest showing since 1990 and just five seats short of the first absolute majority in the lower house of the Bundestag in over half a century. The victory means German Chancellor Angela Merkel will continue to lead Europe's largest economy for a third term.
Without an absolute majority, however, the CDU may need to reach out to the rival Social Democratic Party (SPD) in order to form a "grand coalition." The SPD garnered 25.7 percent of the vote.
Merkel worked with the SPD in a grand coalition during her first term as Chancellor, from 2005 to 2009.