How the world is reacting to Angela Merkel's victory and the rise of the far-right AfD in the German Federal Elections

While Chancellor Angela Merkel and her CDU/CSU conservative alliance have received much praise for their 33% victory, still the party's drop from 311 seats in 2013 to 246 has led many to deem this a "hollow" win. The more pressing matter was the unprecedented rise of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right nationalist party who won a total of 94 seats in the Bundestag.

Responding to the clear anti-migration sentiment growing in German, president of Conde Nast, Wolfgang Blau tweeted optimistically, by pointing out, "The bigger story tonight: Merkel lets more than one million refugees into Germany and then still manages to become Chancellor again."

The bigger story tonight:
Merkel lets more than one million refugees into Germany and then still manages to become Chancellor again.

— Wolfgang Blau (@wblau) September 24, 2017

Reacting to the fact that AfD won 22.9% of the east German vote, Irish economist and journalist David McWilliams commented, "Turns out divisons between the old East and West Germany remains deep."

Turns out division between the old East and West Germany remains deep. On immigration former GDR more in common with Pol, SLO, Hungary.....

— David McWilliams (@davidmcw) September 25, 2017

Yet to comment has been Donald Trump, who is currently embroiled in a battle against NFL players, but Republican Senator John McCain came out in support of Merkel and the CDU/CSU alliance, stating "The US-German alliance is critical & must remain strong."

Congratulations to Angela Merkel & the @CDU on their election victory in #Germany. The US-German alliance is critical & must remain strong.

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 24, 2017

Also celebrating the fact that Merkel will serve as Chancellor for a fourth term is former-Star Trek actor and LGBT activist, George Takei who took the opportunity to reiterate that Merkel will remain "Leader of the Free World",

Congratulations to Angela Merkel on her fourth term as Chancellor of Germany and her continued position as Leader of the Free World.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 24, 2017

Highly critical of the chancellor however, was author and former Greek Minister of Finance, Yanis Varoufakis, who cited Merkel and vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel's treatment of the 2015 Greek Spring as part of the reason for this partial upset.

In 2015 Merkel & Gabriel crushed the Greek Spring together, while practising socialism for bankers. Are they surprised now with the results?

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) September 24, 2017

Frauke Petry, who won her seat as leader of AfD before splitting from the party to become an independent MP took to social media to declare that the "impossible has come true", an ominous statement to accompany her invoking of Ghandi, as she wrote,

"'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win.' - Gandhi."

"Zuerst ignorieren sie dich, dann lachen sie über dich, dann bekämpfen sie dich und dann gewinnst du." - Gandhi.
DANKE ????????#Btw17 #AfD

— Frauke Petry (@FraukePetry) September 24, 2017

On a more sobering note, Mathieu von Rohr of Der Spiegel quoted AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland who said in the past "We have the right to be proud of the accomplishments of German soldiers in two world wars."

Far-right AfD's top candidate Gauland: "We have the right to be proud of the accomplishments of German soldiers in two world wars" #btw17

— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) September 24, 2017

For Merkel and the CDU/CSU alliance, the next task will be to discuss the possibility of a coalition. At present, the most likely outcome will be a Jamaican coalition of the CDU/CSU with the Free Democratic Party and the Green Party, after Martin Schulz of the Social Democrats (SDP) told his supporters that a CDU-SDP coalition was not an option.