Germany’s ruling party CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU have received the largest number of votes in Parliamentary Elections.

This becomes clear from exit poll results cited by the Deutsche Welle.

The preliminary results indicate that CDU-CSU of Chancellor Angela Merkel will be able to form a governing coalition with the liberal Party of Free Democrats, which would terminate the existence of the present “grand coalition” with the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Foreign Minister, Frank Walter-Steinmeier.

According to the exit poll by the public broadcaster ZDF, Merkel’s conservatives have won 33,5% of the vote, and the liberal FDP – 14,6%.

This means the two parties are most likely going to have a shot at forming a narrow, center-right majority. The FDP is the preferred partner of the CDU, which has governed in a “grand coalition” with Steinmeier’s social democrats over the last four years.

The SPD has won 23,3% of the vote, which is a substantial decrease from the 34,2% it got on the previous elections four years ago. It has also recorded its lowest election score after World War II.

The two other major political parties – the Greens and the Left Party – have increased their results compared to the previous elections; they got 10,2% and 12,9% respectively.

The 2009 Parliamentary Elections have set the record of an all-time low voter turnout with only 72% casting their votes compared to 77,7% four years ago.