Shape of new German govt could mean smoother Brexit

ANGELA Merkel picked up her fourth straight general-election win on Sunday, in the face of the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which surged to third place. In a race in which 42 parties fought for 598 Bundestag seats with a high 76.5 per cent turnout rate, her victory could have key implications well beyond Germany, including for the Brexit negotiations.

Despite her win, the unexpected narrative of election night was the higher-than-previously-anticipated support for the AfD, which romped home with about 13 per cent of the vote, going by exit polls. The party therefore becomes the first far-right group to win Bundestag seats in about six decades, and could trigger a significant shift in the country's post-war politics in coming years.

The AfD campaigned extensively on immigration, an issue which has grown significantly in salience since 2015, when around 900,000 migrants and refugees were allowed into the country by Mrs Merkel. Moreover, some elements of the German far-right have sought to link her immigration stance to recent terror atrocities - including a truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed a dozen people last December.