德国选举委员会宣布默克尔获胜

The head of Germany's election committee has announced that Angela Merkel has won 41.5 percent of the vote in Sunday's general election. The result has been a resounding victory for Merkel's Christian Democrats, despite the party falling short of an absolute majority.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party has won Germany’s election, but finished just short of an absolute majority.

The head of the election committee has declared the final results, with Merkel’s CDU bloc leading with 41.5 percent, trailed by the opposition Social Democrats or SPD with 25.7 percent.

The Green Party won 8.4 percent of the vote, and Left party 8.6 percent.

But Merkel’s pro-business coalition partner of the past four years, has for the first time, been ejected from parliament since the post World War Two period.

The Free Democrats failed to reach the necessary 5 percent to be included in the parliament.

The next thing for Merkel is to put together a coalition government, possibly with the left-leaning Social Democrats or - less likely - with the environmentalist Greens.

But either way, it would likely take several weeks of difficult negotiations before any coalition is finalised.

Despite the challenges ahead, Merkel celebrated what she called a "super result" with her supporters in Berlin.

Merkel said, "I don’t have a lot to say. I’m simply saying thank you again. We showed that everybody is in a party mood. All generations are represented. I wish everyone a beautiful, beautiful evening. Today, we are going to party, tomorrow, it’s back to work!"

Recent polls gave Merkel popularity ratings up to 70 percent.

She has pursued a hard-nosed course in the eurozone crisis, insisting on spending cuts and economic reforms in exchange for bailouts to struggling countries.

Merkel has gained a lot of credit for steering Germany away from the economic fallout from the crisis, leaving the economy largely unscathed.