| | European Defence: European Security News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06) |
 | | Significantly, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) (Social Democratic Party of Germany) came second with 34.3 per cent of the vote and 222 seats, despite indications in opinion polls in the weeks leading up to the election that the party would perform badly. |
 | | Of the other major parties, the Freie Demokratische Partei (FPD) (Free Democrats) won 9.8 per cent of the vote and 61 seats, while the SPD's partner in the previous coalition government, Die Grünen (The Greens), won 8.1 per cent and 51 seats. |
 | | The CDU's leader Angela Merkel is still expected to become Germany's first female chancellor, but her hopes that the FPD would win enough votes to be part of a CDU-led government have been dashed. |
| www.european-defence.co.uk /news/0905.html (1642 words) |