Conservative leader Merz wins German election

Exit polls in Germany's national election show opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s conservatives leading, with Alternative for Germany heading for the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II.

According to exit polls released by public broadcaster ARD, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) were projected to win 29 percent of the votes on Sunday, up from 24 per cent in the previous federal election in 2021.

“One thing is clear: the Union has won the election,” said Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party. “The new chancellor will be called Friedrich Merz.”

Merz's main rival, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), was on track for its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election. The SPD was projected to receive 16 percent and finish in third place.

Meanwhile, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has become the second-most powerful political force in the country. The far-right party polled between 19.5 and 20 percent, roughly doubling its result from 2021.

Although headed for victory, Merz’s conservatives fell short of the absolute majority required to govern alone. Whether they will need one or two partners to form a coalition government will depend on how many parties get into parliament.

German exit polls are supplemented with pre-election polling to represent people voting by absentee ballot.

The election was dominated by worries about the years-long stagnation of Europe's biggest economy and pressure to curb migration. It took place against a background of growing uncertainty over the future of Ukraine and Europe's alliance with the United States.

Germany is the most populous country in the 27-nation European Union and a leading member of NATO. It has been Ukraine's second-biggest weapons supplier after the US. It will be central to shaping the continent's response to the challenges of the coming years, including the Trump administration's confrontational foreign and trade policy.

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Source: TRT