German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the "excellent" victory her Christian Democratic Party garnered on Sunday in the general election here, adding that the grouping "will act responsibly" with the "clear mandate" it obtained to govern for four more years.

"I express my thanks for the confidence placed in us. Tomorrow, we will discuss the situation within the party, with the results in hand, but today is the time to celebrate it," said Merkel, alluding to the situation of her coalition partners, the Free Democratic Party, or FDP, which voting projections hold will fail to obtain any seats in Parliament.

The Christian Democratic Union and its sister party, Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), according to voting projections, managed to secure its best result in more than two decades.

Merkel's FDP allies were apparently unable to obtain five percent of the votes cast, which will leave them without representation in the federal parliament and will force the chancellor to revamp the current government coalition.

The conservative grouping may well achieve an absolute majority in the Bundestag, the lower house, according to voter projections broadcast by ARD and ZDF public television.

According to these new estimates, the CDU - with 42.5 percent of the votes - would hold 304 seats in parliament while the opposition bloc would have only 302.

No party has managed to govern on the federal level with an absolute majority in Germany since the days of the country's first post-World War II chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.

That circumstance still depends on how the other parties do, especially the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, who projections say has secured 4.9 percent of the votes and could make it over the five percent threshold for parliamentary representation.

The Social Democratic Party, or SPD, of Peer Steinbrück appears to have garnered about 25.7 percent of the votes, while The Left and the Greens obtained 8.5 percent and 8 percent, respectively. EFE