Victorious Merkel planning turn to right for Germany

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union took 33.8 percent of the vote in a contest that was almost unanimously criticized by commentators as dull and uninspiring.

As an added plus for Merkel, the small libertarian Free Democrats came in third with 14.6 percent, official results showed. That will allow her to rule in a coalition with the probusiness party and to pursue an agenda of lower taxes and an overhaul of labor.

Together, the two parties won 332 seats in the lower house of Parliament, compared with the other parties’ combined 290.

The election ends the awkward government of the past four years, which yoked the Christian Democrats, or CDU, with their archrivals, the left-of-center Social Democrats, in a “grand coalition.’’

For the Social Democrats, yesterday was a humiliating defeat that saw the party plunge to its worst performance since World War II: 23 percent. The rout will almost certainly propel them out of the coalition government for the first time in 11 years.

It was a “bitter day,’’ the Social Democrats’ leader, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, acknowledged to supporters after the polls closed and the results began streaming in. But he promised that the party would remain a political force pressing for fairer distribution of wealth and protection of workers.

“I promise you that we will be an opposition that will look very closely at what happens, how this new team will react,’’ said Steinmeier, who has been Germany’s foreign minister in the coalition government. “It has to prove that it knows what it’s doing.’’

As a candidate, Steinmeier was seen as a bland bureaucrat unable to fire the public imagination. By contrast, although Merkel was lambasted by political watchers for running a soporific campaign almost devoid of substantive debate, she held on to her high personal-approval ratings to win reelection as Germany’s first female leader.

“We have achieved something great,’’ she told cheering party members in a victory speech yesterday evening. “We have managed to achieve our election aim of a stable majority in Germany for a new government.’’

She said she would initiate talks with the Free Democrats about forming a center-right coalition. Such a pairing would enable Merkel, 55, to tackle the contentious issue of overhauling the labor market in Germany, where companies complain about stringent worker protections that they say drag down business and competitiveness. With the Free Democrats in her corner, Merkel also could try to halt the planned phase-out of nuclear power, another highly emotional issue in Germany, where a strong Green Party and many ordinary people oppose such plants.

And crucially for the United States, a new center-right coalition will probably be steelier in its continued commitment of troops to the war in Afghanistan, a deeply unpopular undertaking in Germany.

Following usual practice, the Free Democrats’ leader, Guido Westerwelle, as the junior coalition partner, will probably be named foreign minister. He would be the first openly gay person to hold the post.

Though widely predicted by the opinion polls, Merkel’s reelection was not an unmitigated victory. Critics will ask why, despite her immense popularity, she was unable to lead the CDU to a larger share of the vote than in 2005, when the party drew 35 percent.

But the Christian Democrats’ inability to improve on their last outing at the polls, and the Social Democrats’ steep dive, also reflect the steady splintering of Germany’s political scene. The two big parties used to count on 80 percent of the vote between them, but in recent years, smaller groups such as the Greens, the Free Democrats, and the Left Party have grown in influence.

Yesterday’s election also was beset by increasing voter apathy and disillusionment, especially in areas bypassed by the rising prosperity of the past few years. Though high by American standards, at more than 70 percent, voter turnout was the lowest in Germany in more than 60 years, according to the polling agency Gallup Europe.