German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who started her career as a quantum chemist, and her party, the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), were the big winners in Sunday's elections, with 41.5% of the vote-far ahead of their main rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), who received 25.7%. The victory presents Merkel with a quandary, however, because her favored coalition partner, the Free Democrats, failed to reach the 5% cutoff for representation in the German parliament.
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