German election: Angela Merkel wins but bleeds support to surging far right

She said, 'We have the mandate to build the next govt and there cannot be a coalition govt built against us'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office on Sunday but Europe’s most powerful leader will have to govern with a far less stable coalition in a fractured parliament after her conservatives haemorrhaged support to a surging far right.

Two years after Merkel left German borders open to more than 1 million migrants, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by becoming the first far-right party to enter parliament in more than half a century.

The AfD won 13.0 per cent of the vote - more than expected and one of many shocks on a night