Why was Angela Merkel able to form a coalition with the Free Democratic Party after the 2009 election?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

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

Following the September 2009 parliamentary elections, Angela Merkel was able to form a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) because the CDU-CSU alliance and the FDP collectively won enough seats in the Bundestag to establish a governing majority.12

This outcome allowed Merkel to form a government with her preferred partner, the classical liberal FDP, and forced the Social Democratic Party (SPD)—which had served as the junior partner in a grand coalition with the CDU-CSU since 2005—into opposition.31