Angela Merkel wins fourth term as German Chancellor

Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term as German Chancellor in federal elections, on Sunday, in an election that will also bring a far-right party into Germany's parliament for the first time in more than half a century, exit polls showed.

Her conservative CDU/CSU alliance has won 32.5% of the vote, in a national election remaining the largest party in Germany's parliament, according to the ARD poll.

Those numbers mean that closest rival and coalition partner, the SPD, led by Martin Schulz, has fallen to a new post-World War Two low of 20 percent.

Meanwhile, the AfD, a right-wing nationalist, anti-Islam party, was the principal beneficiary on track to win 13.5%, emerging as Germany's third-strongest party after it joins the pro-business Free Democrats, the Greens and the post-communist Left in the Bundestag after it channeled voter rage at Merkel for allowing some 1.3 million migrants to enter the country since 2015. 

Addressing supporters, Mr Schulz said the result was the end of the "grand coalition" with Mrs Merkel's alliance.

It's a difficult and bitter day for social democrats in Germany. We haven't reached our objective," he said.

She must now form a coalition government - an arduous process that could take months as all potential partners are unsure whether they really want to share power with her.