Angela Merkel will remain Chancellor for her fourth term but her victory has been overshadowed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party winning its first seats in the Bundestag.
The CDU took 32.9 per cent of seats, down almost eight per cent on 2013, while Social Democrats Party (SPD) led by former EU leader Martin Schulz, gained 20.8 per cent and the AfD 13.1 per cent.
Many of the AfD votes came from former CDU supporters, a fact acknowledged by both Mrs Merkel and Mr Schulz in their respective speeches after the result.
Asked by Sky news if he could call the result a victory, CDU vice chairman Dr Michael Fuchs said: “Of course it’s not. Losing nearly eight per cent of the voters is really a terrible situation and we are not happy at all.
“The only good thing is we are still by far the biggest party in parliament and we’ve got the right to form a new coalition, that’s our duty now, but it will not be easy at all.”
The big story of the night has been the AfD, who became the first far right party to enter the Bundestag since World War II.
The party has been compared to the Nazis, with the AfD leader even making pro-Nazi comments.
Their election campaign, featuring derogatory references to Islam and immigration, has also been likened to Third Reich propaganda.
But Dr Fuchs said it was “dangerous” to to say that all AfD supporters were Nazis, as many were in fact dissillusioned conservative CDU voters.
“It is definitely true that we lost to the far right, but we also lost to others and we have to analyse that very intensively,” he said.
“It is very dangerous to say that the AfD are just Nazi, because there are also very conservative thinkers.
“This conservative thinking – maybe we didn’t address it enough.
“I’m quite sure we have to look that some people are not happy with out attitude towards conservative issues.
“We have to do that job better and get back those voters.
“It is definitely not at all what we wanted to have. we don’t want Nazis in Parliament.
“But I think just to say AfD is just nazi is not the right attitude.”
Asked if the AfD result represented a shift to the right in German politics, dr Fucjs replied: “They have 13 per cent.
“It’s a lot, but its not enough to really shift something, so I’m not so scared.”