Angela Merkel, Germany’s first female chancellor, won re-election Sunday by an overwhelming margin – the largest since Helmut Kohl’s post-reunification victory of 1990. Merkel’s right-leaning Christian Democrats defeated the opposition Social Democrat candidate, Peer Steinbrueck. The Christian Democrats, however, fell five seats short of winning an absolute majority in the 630-seat Bundestag – Germany’s lower parliament house – leaving them in need of a coalition partner, which most likely will be the Social Democrats. Serving another four-year term means Merkel will eclipse Margaret Thatcher as Europe’s longest-serving female head of state.

What led to Merkel’s victory? Well, economic austerity measures, which have left Germany, Europe’s largest economy, with the lowest unemployment rate in almost two-decades, and the virtual elimination of the nation’s budget deficit.

So how are American and German voters different? A majority of American voters re-elected a candidate whose policies have failed miserably, leaving the nation with record debt and real unemployment, and a stagnant economy.