German election 2017: Angela Merkel clinches fourth term, exit polls suggest

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term, exit polls suggest.

Mrs Merkel’s conservatives won between 32.5 per cent and 33.5 per cent in Sunday’s vote, according to polls conducted for public television channels ARD and ZDF.

Martin Schulz’s Social Democrats trailed in second place with between 20 and 21 per cent support, the exit polls suggest.

Mrs Merkel told supporters at her party’s headquarters in Berlin: "Of course we had hoped for a slightly better result. But we mustn't forget that we have just completed an extraordinarily challenging legislative period, so I am happy that we reached the strategic goals of our election campaign.”

"We are the strongest party, we have the mandate to build the next government - and there cannot be a coalition government built against us," Mrs Merkel added.

Leaders of the Social Democratic Party say they plan to go into opposition after their disappointing second-place finish in the election. The numbers mean the party has fallen to a new post-World War Two low.

The Social Democrats have been Mrs Merkel's junior coalition partner for the last four years.

Their decision complicates things for Mrs Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, who will have to look to other parties to form a new government coalition in a process that could take months.

The anti-migrant, nationalist Alternative for Germany party will enter the national parliament for the first time with between 13 and 13.5 per cent support.

The party’s leader Frauke Petry said the country had experienced an incomparable “political earthquake”.

Supporters of the Alternative for Germany party broke out in cheers as polls indicated they had emerged as the third-strongest party in Germany's election, and co-leader Alexander Gauland vowed they would "change this country".

Mr Gauland promised supporters on Sunday that the party, known by its German initials AfD, would stay on the heels of the country's established parties.

Mr Gauland said "we will chase them. We will chase Merkel or whomever else".

The head of the Social Democrat's parliamentary caucus, Thomas Oppermann, and party deputy leader Manuela Schwesig both said immediately after the results the party would go into opposition.

Ms Schweisig said on ZDF television "for us it is very clear that the voters have given us the task of going ahead as the strongest party in opposition".

Mr Schulz told Social Democrat supporters at party headquarters that "today is a difficult and bitter day". He added that "we have lost the federal election".

He said that the party had been successful as the junior partner in Mrs Merkel's outgoing coalition government, citing its introduction of a national minimum wage among other things. But he conceded that "we clearly didn't manage to maintain and expand our traditional voter base".