Merkel wins fourth term as German Chancellor as many voters turn to the right-wing AfD

With the German election officially over, the political scene across Europe has truly been shaken.

Many overlook the fallout we will now face as part of the international system. Domestic politics always influences international politics.

Firstly, since the 1950s, Germany will have six parties in the Bundestag for the first time, and the two major parties CDU-CSU and SDP have had the worst performance in years.

Fall outs, break ups and a whole new mix of parliament personalities led to an exciting Sunday. Merkel, leader of the CDU, has won with the biggest percentage of votes, however, just barely making it.

Angela Merkel has had 12 years as Chancellor of Germany, and these next four are going to be extremely crucial in the global political climate.

The 19th Bundestag will be composed of 709 seats, with the top three parties making up 493 seats. That’s 246 to CDU-CSU, 153 to SDP and 94 to AfD. Scary, right?

I can guarantee, if you keep up with international politics, you have heard of the AfD – Alternative fur Deutschland. They have secured their place as the third biggest party in the parliament, creating new conflicts, tensions, and enemies in the Bundestag.

If we look at the breakdown of East and West Germany, the AfD wiped out competition in the east. This is telling us something – they want change.

They feel the current two major parties weren’t doing enough to control the migrant crisis. It was supposedly a bad decision to allow one million refugees in from war torn countries.

Look, the AfD did spectacular in the sense that in the last elections of 2013, they got a measly 4.8% of the vote. Now, they are the third biggest party in the Bundestag. It shows that their policies obviously resonated with many, but who is to blame?

Many say Merkel with the open-door policy but did she really contribute to the rise of populism in Germany?

Another interesting note regarding the AfD is the rivalry and contest between colleagues. The co-leader of the party, Frauke Petry, announced that she will not be sitting with the party in the Bundestag but will serve as an independent MP.

The reasons cited were major disagreements among senior leaders of the party. One can say, it is a well-known trend that right wing parties often have fall outs in the public eye.

Take UKIP and the continuous failure of leadership and spats as an example and Marine Le Pen’s infamous fallout with her own father.  Make of it what you will.

A point to keep in mind is that Merkle is the Iron Lady. She is the most important woman in global politics.

French president Emmanuel Macron was relying on her to come through strongly and keep the country united, helping him in the eurozone.

Angela Merkel has earned herself another term as chancellor but how difficult is it going to be to hold onto the reigns and secure a prosperous future for Germany? Very.

Nationalism – which once ruined the country – is making a swift return. Merkel has promised to win back voters who turned to the right wing party of AfD but it will be interesting to see how she achieves this.

Many are shocked, but I’m not. This is one of the trends in politics and we must face it because our own leaders are giving these extreme parties a platform. The AfD are the first far right party to enter parliament post WWII.

People are frightened and rightly so – where does the line get drawn between patriotism, nationalism, and a repeat of history?

One of the other worst aspects of this night was the failure of the SDP. Martin Schulz’s party scraped second and lost a fair number of seats.

Being the people’s party in Germany, they suffered major blows, thus the decision of going into opposition rather than a coalition. For such a loss, there must be a wide consensus that the party is inadequate.

Now, we anxiously wait for the announcement of the new coalition government or lack of and who the ~lucky~ parties are.

AfD will be interesting to watch, and to see their policies. CDU-CSU have a long and difficult road in front of them. Who knows what is going to happen?