NY Times: BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a stunning personal triumph Sunday in the national elections in Germany, becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008 and winning a strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing troubled Europe.
The surprising show of strength for the chancellor and her center-right Christian Democrats — even their own polls had not suggested such a result — was just short of an absolute majority, according to preliminary official results published on Monday. No chancellor has achieved an absolute majority since Konrad Adenauer in 1957.
Ms. Merkel, a physicist raised in Communist East Germany, was unusually buoyant when she appeared before supporters, who chanted “Angie! Angie!” and gave her two minutes of applause at party headquarters. She exuberantly thanked voters, campaigners and her husband, Joachim Sauer, a quantum chemist. Mr. Sauer, who tends to shun the limelight, stood at the side of the stage, acknowledging the jubilation.
Later, during a celebration at her party headquarters, Ms. Merkel, 59, clapped and sang along with the crowds but reminded them, “Tomorrow, we work.”
For all her success, it is not clear how Ms. Merkel will govern in her third four-year term. Her allies for the past four years, the business-minded Free Democrats, were expected to lose their place in Parliament, missing the 5 percent cutoff.
Categories: Europe