Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats party (CDU) won Germany’s elections with 28.6 percent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) recorded big gains with 20.8 percent, becoming the second biggest political force in the country.
Olaf Scholz’s center-left party (SPD) is third with 16.4 percent of the vote. The Green party is fourth, with 11.6 percent.
Friedrich Merz, an old-school conservative who has never held a government role before, will likely become the new chancellor of Germany.
Greeted with cheers when he stepped on to stage as soon as the exit polls were announced, Merz proclaimed: “We have won the Bundestag election.”
He added that he is “aware of the responsibility that now lies ahead” of him. He told the crowd that they need to “quickly regain our ability to act so that we can do the right thing at home, so that we are once again present in Europe, so that the world can see that Germany is being governed reliably once again.”
Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany took to the stage at an election party after exit polls were announced.
“We have never been stronger, we are the second biggest force” she told the crowd. ” We are the only party with a double-digit score compared to the past elections,” she added. In the September 2021 elections, AfD represented 10,3 percent of the national vote.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, suffered a 9 percent loss compared to the 2021 elections, its worst result in modern history.
While his future as the party leader remains uncertain, Scholz took responsibility for his party’s poor election showing, admitting the result was a “defeat.”
“This is a bitter election result for the SPD, this is a defeat. It’s a result that we will have to put behind us,” he told the gathering at the party’s headquarters.
Germany’s high-stakes elections
Germans headed to the polls this Sunday in a high-stakes election to choose their next federal government, with conservatives having had long emerged as the strong favorites. The election follows a tense campaign marked by a far-right surge, a struggling economy, and growing concerns over migration. The results will have far-reaching implications, closely watched by both Europe and the United States.
Friedrich Merz, the 69-year-old leader of the conservative Christian Democrats party (CDU) will need to forge an alliance with at least one other party, most likely with Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), whose government collapsed last year and called for a snap election. The next day for Germany will be a challenging one as the next chancellor will have to navigate through some very turbulent waters in order to form a stable governing coalition in Europe’s most populous country.
On the eve of the vote, Merz was adamant he would not make a deal with the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is set to become the second biggest political force in Germany and is eyeing a record result after a string of deadly attacks across the country blamed on asylum seekers. The far-right party, led by Alice Weidel, is already popular in several eastern states, but is rapidly growing in the west too.
However, it may take many weeks for Merz to negotiate a coalition government, spelling yet even more political paralysis in Berlin under such fraught times. Schotz will remain as a caretaker chancellor until any new coalition takes shape.
Polling stations opened at 0700GMT, with more than 59 million Germans eligible to vote and closed at 1700 GMT. Up to 30 percent of voters had remained undecided last week.
Why Germany’s high-stakes election matters
The election is a landmark moment for Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, as the country will have to make big decisions both on the world stage and at home.
Merz promises strong leadership in Europe at a time of chaotic disruption, but Berlin is also under pressure to loosen the budget strings for its military.
As Ukraine’s second biggest provider of military aid after the United States, Germany’s next chancellor will face a U.S. President who has condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator and fractured the West’s united front against Russia.
Across Europe, NATO allies worry about the future of the alliance, nowhere more than in Germany, which grew prosperous under the U.S.-led security umbrella.
Trump, asked about the elections in Germany, which he has scolded over its trade, migration and defense policies, said dismissively that “I wish them luck, we got our own problems.”
For the next German chancellor, more threats loom from the United States, long its ironclad ally, if Trump sparks a trade war, as he has hinted, that could further harm Germany’s recession-hit economy.
Germany’s political crisis was sparked when Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Trump was re-elected U.S. president; the three-party coalition leaders had long quarreled over Germany’s tight finances.
Frustration with the leadership led to the rise of AfD, which has been polling at around 20 percent and looks set to stay in opposition as all other parties have vowed to keep it out of power.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance has met with AfD’s leader Alice Weidel and has called for an end to the long-standing taboo of talking to the far-right.