On September 27th German voters re-elected Angela Merkel as Chancellor, much as opinion polls had projected. What was not accurately projected was the savage pummeling from voters given to the country’s other major party, the Social Democrats (SPD).  While the Christian Democrat/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) saw their vote fall to 33.8% of the total vote (the worst outing since the end of WWII), the SPD were down a little over 11% to 23% of the total vote, effectively knocking them out of power. The election’s real winner was the Free Democrats (FDP), a right-of-center party, which in the past was a partner to the CDU/CSU governments and gained 14.6% of the vote, an all-time high. 

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