Commenting on the news that AfD has made its way toward the Bundestag, Merkel vowed to win the voters her party had lost to the anti-immigrant party back.
"There's a big new challenge for us, and that is the entry of the AfD in the Bundestag," said Merkel, adding: "We want to win back AfD voters."
Earlier, the ARD broadcaster's exit polls indicated that AfD was set to take the third place with 13,5% of votes, getting seats in Bundestag for the first time ever. CDU/CSU were said to be gaining 32.5%, while SPD is getting 21% votes so far.
The German chancellor didn't specify which party it would pick to form a coalition along with CDU/CSU conservative party.
The polling stations at Sunday's federal election in Germany closed at 6 p.m. local time (16:00 GMT).
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