German Chancellor and Christian Democratic Union candidate (CDU) Angela Merkel (C) and husband Joachim Sauer (L) walk to a polling station in Berlin,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a third term in elections Sunday but her conservatives may be forced to govern in a "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats, exit polls showed.
Merkel's previous junior partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, narrowly failed to re-enter the parliament, ARD and ZDF public television said immediately after polling booths closed.
The exit polls gave Merkel's conservatives at least 42 per cent, the Social Democrats about 26 per cent, but the Free Democrats just below the five per cent needed to re-enter parliament.