German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term while nationalists have made a historic surge in federal elections, exit polls show.

Her conservative CDU/CSU bloc has seen its worst result in almost 70 years but will remain the largest in parliament.

Its current coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, says it will go into opposition after historic losses.

The nationalist AfD has won its first seats and is set to be the third party, a result that sparked some protests.

• Merkel's hollow victory

Dozens of demonstrators have gathered outside the right-wing, anti-Islam party's headquarters in Berlin, some with placards saying "Refugees are welcome".

Protests have also been held in Frankfurt and Cologne.

What does the result mean for Mrs Merkel?

While her alliance has remained the largest party, the numbers, if confirmed, are the worst result for the alliance between the Christian Democrat (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) since 1949, when national elections were held in Germany for the first time after World War Two.

Addressing supporters, Mrs Merkel, who has been in the job for 12 years, said she had hoped for a "better result".

She added that she would listen to the "concerns, worries and anxieties" of voters of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in order to win them back.

Mrs Merkel also said her government would have to deal with economic and security issues as well as addressing the root causes of migration - one of the main reasons behind the AfD's result.

"Today we can say that we now have a mandate to assume responsibility and we're going to assume this responsibility calmly, talking with our partners of course."

• Angela Merkel's quiet power
• Why this vote is a turning point

The result is disastrous for Mrs Merkel, BBC Berlin correspondent Jenny Hill says.

The chancellor is being punished, our correspondent adds, for opening Germany's door to almost 900,000 undocumented refugees and migrants.

What are her coalition options?

The exit polls suggest the Social Democrats (SPD), led by Martin Schulz, also had its worst election result since 1949. He said the outcome meant the end of the "grand coalition" with Mrs Merkel's alliance.

"It's a difficult and bitter day for social democrats in Germany," Mr Schulz told supporters. "We haven't reached our objective."

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Image caption
Chancellor Merkel has won a fourth term, but will need new coalition partners

With the possibility of an alliance with the SPD rejected, Mrs Merkel's options are narrow, and the process of forming a new coalition could take months.

The projections suggest that six parties will be in the German parliament for the first time since the 1950s.

• Election marks unprecedented shift
• What does Alternative for Germany (AfD) want?

The most likely scenario is of a "Jamaica" coalition, so-called because of the colours of Jamaica's flag. It includes the black CDU/CSU, the yellow, business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) - who are returning to parliament after a four-year hiatus - and the Greens.

It is not a marriage made in heaven, as the Greens want to phase out 20 coal-fired power plants and the FDP disagree, but it is the only formation that would guarantee enough seats in the new Bundestag, German broadcaster ZDF says.

All parties have rejected working with the AfD.

What about the AfD?

The party has capitalised on a backlash against Mrs Merkel's policy towards migrants and refugees, many of them from war-torn, mainly Muslim countries like Syria.

Its programme is heavily anti-immigrant, and particularly anti-Islam. It called for a ban on minarets and considered Islam incompatible with German culture.

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Image caption
Protesters took to the streets to voice their opposition to AfD

Additionally, several of its candidates have been linked to far-right remarks.

Prominent AfD figure Frauke Petry said on Twitter (in German) that Germany had experienced an incomparable "political earthquake". The party's performance was better than forecast in opinion polls.

Media captionGerman post-war politics in two minutes

Meanwhile, Beatrix van Storch, one of the party's leaders, told the BBC that the result would change the political system in Germany, giving "a voice" to the people she said were not represented in the last parliament.

"We'll start debates on migration, we'll start debates on Islam, we'll start debates on ever closer union."

AfD calls for stricter asylum rules to curb abuse of the system, including vetting of claims in countries of origin that are deemed "safe".

Related Topics

• Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellorafter her centre right CDU/CSU won a projected 33% of the vote in federal elections, making it the largest party in the Bundestag with an estimated 218 seats.
• The Christian Democrats’ score, sharply down on the 41% of the vote it collected in the previous 2013 elections, was widely seen as disappointing and is likely to leave Merkel diminished on the domestic political stage.
• Her main rivals (and outgoing coalition partners), Martin Schulz’s Social Democrat SPD, crashed to just over 20% and a projected 138 seats. Within an hour of the first exit poll, Schulz confirmed statements by other senior party figures that the SPD would not renew its “grand coalition” with the CDU but head into opposition.
• The far-right, anti-immigration AfD made a historic breakthrough, winning 13.5% of the vote and a projected 87 seats and becoming the first overtly nationalist party to sit in the Bundestag in 60 years. The party’s performance marks a major shift in Germany’s postwar politics that is likely to produce a very different tone and dynamic inside the Bundestag.
• The SPD’s decision to become the official parliamentary opposition leaves the only feasible coalition for Merkel a three-party tie up between the CDU/CSU, the pro-business FDP party who scored 10%, and the Greens, who won 9%: the so-called black-yellow-green Jamaica coalition, which has worked at state level but never been tried in federal government. This could prove tricky to negotiate.
• Merkel said in her post-election speech that the CDU had hoped for a better result but had faced – referring to the 2015 migrant crisis – an “extraordinary challenge” and had still managed to remain Germany’s largest party. She pledged to listen to AfD voters and win back those she could with “good politics”.
• The AfD promised “constructive opposition” in parliament but the Greens have already complained that “Nazis have returned to parliament”.
•  During the traditional televised leaders’ debate, Schulz said the EU and the new German government should “not cede anything” to Britain over Brexit, including the two-year transition period Theresa May said she wants, and the FDP’s Christian Lindner dealt a blow to French president Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for eurozone reform, confirming that the party was opposed to fiscal transfers within the zone.

Here's a summary of where we are so far:

• Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellorafter her centre right CDU/CSU won a projected 33% of the vote in federal elections, making it the largest party in the Bundestag with an estimated 218 seats.
• The Christian Democrats’ score, sharply down on the 41% of the vote it collected in the previous 2013 elections, was widely seen as disappointing and is likely to leave Merkel diminished on the domestic political stage.
• Her main rivals (and outgoing coalition partners), Martin Schulz’s Social Democrat SPD, crashed to just over 20% and a projected 138 seats. Within an hour of the first exit poll, Schulz confirmed statements by other senior party figures that the SPD would not renew its “grand coalition” with the CDU but head into opposition.
• The far-right, anti-immigration AfD made a historic breakthrough, winning 13.5% of the vote and a projected 87 seats and becoming the first overtly nationalist party to sit in the Bundestag in 60 years. The party’s performance marks a major shift in Germany’s postwar politics that is likely to produce a very different tone and dynamic inside the Bundestag.
• The SPD’s decision to become the official parliamentary opposition leaves the only feasible coalition for Merkel a three-party tie up between the CDU/CSU, the pro-business FDP party who scored 10%, and the Greens, who won 9%: the so-called black-yellow-green Jamaica coalition, which has worked at state level but never been tried in federal government. This could prove tricky to negotiate.
• Merkel said in her post-election speech that the CDU had hoped for a better result but had faced – referring to the 2015 migrant crisis – an “extraordinary challenge” and had still managed to remain Germany’s largest party. She pledged to listen to AfD voters and win back those she could with “good politics”.
• The AfD promised “constructive opposition” in parliament but the Greens have already complained that “Nazis have returned to parliament”.
•  During the traditional televised leaders’ debate, Schulz said the EU and the new German government should “not cede anything” to Britain over Brexit, including the two-year transition period Theresa May said she wants, and the FDP’s Christian Lindner dealt a blow to French president Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for eurozone reform, confirming that the party was opposed to fiscal transfers within the zone.

Here's a summary of where we are so far:

• Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellorafter her centre right CDU/CSU won a projected 33% of the vote in federal elections, making it the largest party in the Bundestag with an estimated 218 seats.
• The Christian Democrats’ score, sharply down on the 41% of the vote it collected in the previous 2013 elections, was widely seen as disappointing and is likely to leave Merkel diminished on the domestic political stage.
• Her main rivals (and outgoing coalition partners), Martin Schulz’s Social Democrat SPD, crashed to just over 20% and a projected 138 seats. Within an hour of the first exit poll, Schulz confirmed statements by other senior party figures that the SPD would not renew its “grand coalition” with the CDU but head into opposition.
• The far-right, anti-immigration AfD made a historic breakthrough, winning 13.5% of the vote and a projected 87 seats and becoming the first overtly nationalist party to sit in the Bundestag in 60 years. The party’s performance marks a major shift in Germany’s postwar politics that is likely to produce a very different tone and dynamic inside the Bundestag.
• The SPD’s decision to become the official parliamentary opposition leaves the only feasible coalition for Merkel a three-party tie up between the CDU/CSU, the pro-business FDP party who scored 10%, and the Greens, who won 9%: the so-called black-yellow-green Jamaica coalition, which has worked at state level but never been tried in federal government. This could prove tricky to negotiate.
• Merkel said in her post-election speech that the CDU had hoped for a better result but had faced – referring to the 2015 migrant crisis – an “extraordinary challenge” and had still managed to remain Germany’s largest party. She pledged to listen to AfD voters and win back those she could with “good politics”.
• The AfD promised “constructive opposition” in parliament but the Greens have already complained that “Nazis have returned to parliament”.
•  During the traditional televised leaders’ debate, Schulz said the EU and the new German government should “not cede anything” to Britain over Brexit, including the two-year transition period Theresa May said she wants, and the FDP’s Christian Lindner dealt a blow to French president Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for eurozone reform, confirming that the party was opposed to fiscal transfers within the zone.

Here's a summary of where we are so far:

• Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellorafter her centre right CDU/CSU won a projected 33% of the vote in federal elections, making it the largest party in the Bundestag with an estimated 218 seats.
• The Christian Democrats’ score, sharply down on the 41% of the vote it collected in the previous 2013 elections, was widely seen as disappointing and is likely to leave Merkel diminished on the domestic political stage.
• Her main rivals (and outgoing coalition partners), Martin Schulz’s Social Democrat SPD, crashed to just over 20% and a projected 138 seats. Within an hour of the first exit poll, Schulz confirmed statements by other senior party figures that the SPD would not renew its “grand coalition” with the CDU but head into opposition.
• The far-right, anti-immigration AfD made a historic breakthrough, winning 13.5% of the vote and a projected 87 seats and becoming the first overtly nationalist party to sit in the Bundestag in 60 years. The party’s performance marks a major shift in Germany’s postwar politics that is likely to produce a very different tone and dynamic inside the Bundestag.
• The SPD’s decision to become the official parliamentary opposition leaves the only feasible coalition for Merkel a three-party tie up between the CDU/CSU, the pro-business FDP party who scored 10%, and the Greens, who won 9%: the so-called black-yellow-green Jamaica coalition, which has worked at state level but never been tried in federal government. This could prove tricky to negotiate.
• Merkel said in her post-election speech that the CDU had hoped for a better result but had faced – referring to the 2015 migrant crisis – an “extraordinary challenge” and had still managed to remain Germany’s largest party. She pledged to listen to AfD voters and win back those she could with “good politics”.
• The AfD promised “constructive opposition” in parliament but the Greens have already complained that “Nazis have returned to parliament”.
•  During the traditional televised leaders’ debate, Schulz said the EU and the new German government should “not cede anything” to Britain over Brexit, including the two-year transition period Theresa May said she wants, and the FDP’s Christian Lindner dealt a blow to French president Emmanuel Macron’s hopes for eurozone reform, confirming that the party was opposed to fiscal transfers within the zone.

6127693
Oh yes, because this movie has a happy ending .

Speaking of , does anyone have an actual plan for how literally any left-wing party, parties, or coalition comes to actually win anything anywhere ever? Being the Doomed Moral Victor isn't very appealing, honestly, when it gets you mass-dead for a second time around.

Of course, somehow everyone fucking hates right-populists (aka: fascists) the instant they get into any kind of power anywhere, but does anyone hate them enough to form an electorally and ideologically workable left-wing counter-power? Seemingly not.

6128237

Speaking of , does anyone have an actual plan for how literally any left-wing party, parties, or coalition comes to actually win anything anywhere ever? Being the Doomed Moral Victor isn't very appealing, honestly, when it gets you mass-dead for a second time around.

Of course, somehow everyone fucking hates right-populists (aka: fascists) the instant they get into any kind of power anywhere, but does anyone hate them enough to form an electorally and ideologically workable left-wing counter-power? Seemingly not.

Well, you see, chums, I've got a little story to tell about that.

Some people back in the 1930s came up with the splendid idea of beating up fascists - direct action, as it were. Their reasoning was this: if you beat fascists to within a inch of their lives, they'll be too frightened to come out and cause havoc by getting people to vote for them and whatnot. Their descendants continue to punch Nazis up until this day.

For a while this worked.

However, for reasons that are now obscure, people back then found this antifascist paramilitary organization objectionable, just as they do now.

"I'm scared! They might beat me up too!"

"How can you be sure who's a Nazi, though? I mean, just because a white dude or a white lady totes around a Nazi flag while sieging and heiling and screaming about how them damn Joos and N-words should be Final Solutioned, that doesn't mean they're actually a Nazi!

"What if...people who beat up nazis...are the real nazis?"

"Look, I'm all for punching Nazis, but you can't destroy property. That's just as bad as being a Nazi. Besides, people will hate you for destroying their property."

Because of these Very Concerned Citizens, people conspired to get the original antifascist paramilitary banned in 1933.

Sound familiar?

Now, you may say that this tactic has little to do with votes or the political process, but it's important to remember that voting and political parties are not the only ways the masses can exercise their power.

6128720
Could you please just say outright what you think actually works to keep Nazis out of power? I can't speculate on political theory from the grave any more than you can.

Right-wing parties tend to thrive and become popular during times of social or economic uncertainty, mostly because they offer a simplistic cause and solution to the uncertainty. It's basically pick a scapegoat, blame them for all the troubles facing the country, and then proclaim that all the problems will be solved once the scapegoat has been taken care of or made powerless. And it sadly works because love and yearn for simple solutions to complex problems in a complex world.

The results in Germany wasn't that surprising to me to be honest. As long as uncertainty and fear continue, right-wing nationalist parties will continue to thrive. The only difference now is that instead of the scapegoats being Communists and Jews, it is now globalization and Muslims.

So far the best solution to keep Nazi/Fascist parties out of power is making people actually research and educate themselves on the policies they propose, to prevent people from being conned by a snake oil salesman who offers simple solutions to everything.

6129170

It's a difficult question, a problem which cannot be solved with a single magic bullet, because it's not just about frightening Nazis into hiding; it's also about preventing the ideology from spreading.

Forcing Nazis into hiding is not a solution. It's on the level of thinking that if you close your eyes the bad thing will go away. They'll still be there, organizing and indoctrinating new credible young white teenagers. That kind of thinking is what led us into this mess in the first place, because people thought Nazis were over just because the Reich lost the Second World War.

It's a short term solution at best.

Some clever wag might be expecting me to say "Kill every nazi and the problem is done", but that's also a stupid idea, because the ideas that cause Nazism will still exist as long as a young white child can open a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the other books that outline fascist ideology.

The ideology that gives birth to Nazis must be suppressed entirely. People should not be allowed to read books that champion Nazi ideology, for example. Books like 'mein kampf' should be kept out of the hands of the general public and only allowed into the hands of people who are not vulnerable.

I also think that the current economic situation must be rectified before we can make any forward progress on ending Nazis. Poverty and untenable living conditions drive people to support Nazi ideology, because it's easy to believe you are poor or lacking opportunities because of The Jews™.

A powerful left-wing political bloc that can consolidate its place in society is also an excellent antidote to Nazis, as you have mentioned, is another excellent preventative measure.