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Angela Merkel has won a fourth term as Germany's Chancellor in a federal election whose outcome seemed inevitable since the start of campaigning three months ago. But her ruling Christian Democrats got a lower share of the vote than predicted and Germany's far-right populists surged, securing a bigger vote than most pollsters forecast. Official results give Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, a 33 percent share of the vote, making her one of only three postwar chancellors elected to a fourth term. Pollsters had expected the CDU/CSU to win between 36 to 39 percent of the vote. With the lower CDU vote and a stronger showing than expected by Germany's controversial far-right populist party Alternative for Germany, Merkel's win is arguably bittersweet. "We fought for Germany that lives happily and well," Merkel said at the CDU headquarters. But she acknowledged "a new challenge in the form of the AfD," adding, "We would like to win back AfD voters so we will look into their concerns." AfD easily cleared the five percent threshold needed to secure seats in the Bundestag. Merkel is blamed indirectly by some in Germany for the rise of the AfD, which until her 2017 open-door policy for war refugees from the Middle East appeared to be moribund. AfD grabbed 12.6 percent of the national vote, the first time openly nationalists have entered the German parliament since the Nazi era, marking a sharp departure for a country that has limits on political speech and is wary of any dramatic expressions of nationalism. | 
