Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday won fourth term in an election that was set to bring a far-right party into Germany's parliament for the first time in more than half a century.
Ms Merkel, Europe's longest serving leader, joined the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany's rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.
Ms Merkel's conservative bloc was set to win 33.2 per cent of the vote, making them the largest parliamentary group. However, that was down from 41.5 per cent in the last election in 2013.
She will now be tasked with forming a coalition government – an arduous process that could take months.
"Of course we had hoped for a slightly better result," she told supporters in Berlin, "but we mustn't forget that we have just completed an extraordinarily challenging legislative period, so I am happy that we reached the strategic goals of our election campaign.
"We are the strongest party, we have the mandate to build the next government – and there cannot be a coalition government built against us."
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