The Christian Democrats welcomed the decision and said their leadership would convene on Sunday and Monday to discuss their strategy for the talks. Mr. Schulz’s Social Democrats slipped by 5 percentage points, a performance for which he apologized in his conference speech. Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats lost even more support — 7 percentage points — but remained the strongest party, with the task of seeking partners to build a government. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was voted into Parliament for the first time, as the third-strongest party, draining support from the two main parties in a significant showing of voter anger over immigration and inequality. Ms. Merkel first tried to build a broad-based coalition with two smaller parties.

Source: New York Times December 08, 2017 17:48 UTC