World News for Students of English

28-09-2017 07:00

Angela Merkel won her fourth term as German Chancellor but with a smaller vote share for her party the ‘Christian Democratic Union of Germany’ or CDU. The group lost ground to right-wing nationalists.

Merkel now faces the difficult task of forming a new coalition in Germany’s parliament. Merkel said that the party had imagined a better result, but it also recognised the shared responsibility for the country and the future that it now has.

The right-wing nationalist AfD or ‘Alternative for Germany’ surged in the polls, becoming Germany’s third largest party. An AfD supporter explained that the reason for this was the previous absence of parliamentary opposition, which would challenge the former coalition’s immigration policy.

Voices disagreeing with AfD’s ideals could also be found – there was an anti-AfD protest in Berlin. The people held up banners which read ‘I’m feeling sick’ or ‘Don’t repeat history!’. One protester who talked to the media about the initiative said that AfD supporters were basically Nazis, which was apparent from the language that their politicians were using.

The centre-left SDP (Social Democratic Party) had its worst post-war election result with only 20% of the votes with the leader declaring that the party would go into opposition.

Difficult words: chancellor (German head of government), lose ground (lose support), coalition (a group made up of other groups), surge (increase extremely), initiative (activity).

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