Merkel Wins Re-Election, New Coalition

Germany's chancellor will form new bloc with center-right
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2009 12:28 PM CDT
Merkel Wins Re-Election, New Coalition
German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Party, CDU, casts her ballot for the German general elections in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009.   (AP Photo/Gero Breloer)

Angela Merkel was headed to re-election today, and German voters were sending her along with enough votes to cobble together a center-right coalition and ditch the Social Democrats she has been allied with since 2005. Exit polls on German television showed Merkel's conservative bloc with 33.4% of the vote, while her onetime allies went down to bitter defeat as voters gave the center-right Free Democrat Party another 14.8%. (More Angela Merkel stories.)

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