German Chancellor Angela Merkel has won re-election handily- and more to the point, it's looking like she (and her party, the CDU) have won enough of the vote (around 33%) to ditch the 'Grand Coalition' they had going with the center-left Social Democrats and form an all center-right coalition with the pro-reform Free Democrats.
Final results are should be starting to come in during the next few hours, but exit polls in Germany are apparently considered reliable and they're calling the vote breakdown as followed:
The Right...
CDU/CSU: 33.4%
FDP: 14.8%
Total: 48.2%
The Left...
SDP: 22.7%
Left: 12.5%
Greens: 10.6%
Total: 45.8%
Other: 6.0%
I'm not really plugged in to German politics enough to say for certain what this means, but should these results hold up (pretty sure they will) then Chancellor Merkel will be able to ditch the awkward 'Grand Coalition' (where all parties are in government together, awkwardly...) and actually get some room to run and do stuff without worrying about her coalition flying apart on her. The Free Democrats seem game for Reform and the voters seem to want a steady hand at the helm- and Merkel is not flash or fireworks- in fact, if there is a word that comes to mind when I think of the Chancellor-- it's steady.
And in times of crisis, 'steady' could be just what the doctor ordered.
Oh and hey- since I don't know what's up with German politics, take the words of people who do- or probably have a better idea than me. Check 'em here.
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