Merkel Wins in Landslide

There was good news along with the not-so-good for German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sunday’s election. The good: she won in a landslide. “This is a super result,” Merkel told cheering supporters. Now for the not-so-good: her conservative government appeared to have fallen just short of a majority, meaning they will have to form a coalition government with her leftist rivals. In early results, Merkel’s conservative bloc had captured 42 percent of the vote, their best results since unification in 1990. But it still fell shy of the majority, meaning she will have to form a “grand coalition”—although the center-left Social Democrats are getting weary after aligning with Merkel in 2005 and 2009, alienating their base.