The senseless thing happened about post-war Germany. Angela Merkel now needs to convince everyone

Angela Merkel looked tired and tense as she arrived at her party's headquarters last night after the voting ended.

Leaving the car, she tried to make up a smile, first for the cameras, and then for the party's faithful, who had gathered at the CSU headquarters.
The Chancellor knew the odds were that she would win this election. But it is not the victory she had hoped for, or her party. It's the worst election result of conservatives, under its leadership. A verdict probably, on its decision to open Germany's doors to a million refugees.

Addressing the party, Merkel acknowledged that the past four years have been difficult. Despite this, the party has again achieved its goal.
The cheers were a little empty. Because the true story of success in this election belongs to AfD.

On the other side of the city, in a hall filled with blue and white balloons, members of the anti-immigrant and anti-euros cheerisin, as it became clear that not only would they enter the German Parliament for the first time but also that they will be the third largest party in Bundestag, after the conservatives of Merkel and her closest rivals, the SPD Social Democrats.
Alexander Gauland is one of the leaders of the AfD and now one of its deputies. Triumphously, he turned to a crowd celebrating, saying his party would stick to Merkel. Retake the country and the people”: for a post-World War II Germany, it's an unusual rhetoric.

But then the extremely xenophobic and AfD campaign, as well as the unpleasant questions accompanying Merkel's entire campaign, are also almost unprecedented. Outside the party celebrating, police kept an eye on the AfD protesters, who demonstrated against the one who, for many, is a shocking political development.
It was a chaotic day for German politics. And for Berlin too, who organized the annual marathon, while voters went to vote.

There are divisions, resentment in the heart of this country. Among the crowds that saw marathoners crossing the finish, a man told me that he was terrified by the climb of right - wing nationalists. “They are like the Nazis under Hitler”, he said. I was born in 1939. I'm a child of war. I grew up in ruins and now this thing comes back. They're criminals. I've always voted CDU and Angela Merkel”.
Now, Merkel needs to find coalition partners. Don't expect me to invite the AfD. She must also convince her country maybe even some within the party that she is the right woman for the job. It's been a long and full election campaign. Merkel may have won the election, but that doesn't feel much like a win.

These choices will enter the history books for two reasons. Angela Merkel may have won a fourth term, but it is her worst historical outcome. And right-wing nationalists are already part of the German electorate.
What is politically the norm in many other European countries was considered unthinkable in postwar Germany. Not anymore. / BBC world.al