Why did the Free Democratic Party fail to remain in Angela Merkel’s government after the 2013 election?

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“Queen of Europe” — Angela Merkel Angela Merkel, the first woman to serve as chancellor of Germany, 2012.

In the September 2013 federal election, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) failed to remain in Angela Merkel’s government because it did not reach the 5 percent threshold of the vote required for representation in the Bundestag. This marked the first time in the postwar era that the party failed to secure enough votes to enter the legislature. Consequently, despite the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian affiliate, the Christian Social Union (CSU), winning nearly 42 percent of the vote, Merkel was forced to seek a new coalition partner, eventually forming a "grand coalition" with the Social Democratic Party.123