Merkel's second win puts Germany on the road to the Right

Angela Merkel won a second term in Germany as voters-nudged Europe's biggest economic power to the Right.

They sent the main Left-wing party, the Social Democrats, into opposition after 11 years in government.

Mrs Merkel told supporters they had achieved "something magnificent", but said she wanted to be a Chancellor of all Germans at a moment of crisis. "Tonight we can really celebrate," said a beaming Mrs Merkel, greeted by chants of "Angie! Angie!" from supporters. "But there are many problems in our country to be solved."

The conservative Mrs Merkel ended her four-year "grand coalition" with foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's Social Democrats thanks to a record showing by her new coalition partners, the Free Democrats. Her own Christian Democratic Union performed unimpressively.

The big winner is the leader of the pro-business Free Democrats, Guido Westerwelle, who is expected to be Mrs Merkel's deputy and foreign minister.

A lawyer by training, 47-year-old Mr Westerwelle has been in a relationship for years with partner Michael Mronz. His homosexuality has rarely been an issue for the German public in eight years of leading his party. "We are pleased with this exceptional result but we know that above all else, this means responsibility," he said.

Mrs Merkel vowed "swift and decisive" talks to instal the Right-wing coalition, likely to be shorter than the two months of haggling that produced the "grand coalition" in 2005. The two parties must now agree on issues ranging from taxes to employment policy and security.

Ms Merkel's CDU and its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union, won 33.8 per cent of the vote and the Social Democrats took 23 per cent. Exit polls showed the Free Democrats captured 14.6 per cent, the Left Party 11.9 per cent and the Greens 10.7 per cent.

That gave the conservatives 239 seats and the Free Democrats 93 in the lower house - for a comfortable centre-Right majority of 332 seats to 290.