Merkel on track for fourth term after German election: Exit polls

Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc is largest party; hard-right party AfD on track for 13.5% of vote

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives secured a fourth consecutive term in office on Sunday in an election that brought a far-right party into the German parliament for the first time in more than half a century, exit polls indicated.

After shock results last year, from Britain's vote to leave the European Union to the election of US President Donald Trump, many look to Merkel to rally a bruised liberal Western order and lead a post-Brexit Europe.

Merkel's conservative bloc - her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU) - won 32.5% of the vote, making them by far