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ROME, Sept. 26-- Would Germany's elections results affect the political equilibrium in Italy, the next European country to head to election in few months? Italian analysts and media mulled over the issue in the aftermath of the vote held on Sunday, which granted Chancellor Angela Merkel her fourth term in a row. Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc remained the largest force in the parliament, with 33 percent of the vote. Nonetheless, it suffered its heaviest setback in decades. An even larger defeat struck the major center-left party, the Social Democrats SPD, which dropped to 20.5 percent from 25.7 percent in the previous election in 2013. The two forces had been leading the country for the past four years through a so-called grand coalition. As support for mainstream parties weakened -- as already registered in other countries within the European Union (EU) -- anti-immigration and euro-sceptic Alternative fuer Deutschland (AFD) party scored the best result ever for a far-right movement in Germany after World War II. With 12.6 percent of vote, it will enter the parliament for the first time as the third largest force. Was the same trend likely to repeat itself in Italy, which was going to hold parliamentary elections next spring? "I think the German vote may indeed affect the next campaign in Italy, in terms of more emphasis given on the need to reform the EU," Federico Niglia, professor of international relations and history with LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua. "Each political force, of course, would address this issue according to its orientation." | 
