bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

Germany’s conservatives won the national election on Sunday but a fractured vote handed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) its best result in second place and left conservative leader Friedrich Merz facing messy coalition talks.
Merz, who has no previous experience in office, is set to become chancellor with Europe’s largest economy ailing, its society split over migration and its security caught between a confrontational US and an assertive Russia and China.
After the collapse of incumbent Olaf Scholz’s unloved coalition, Merz, 69, must forge a coalition from a fragmented parliament in a process that could take months.
His conservative bloc and other mainstream parties rule out working with the AfD, a party which has been endorsed by US figures including billionaire Elon Musk.

Merz took aim at the US in blunt remarks after his victory, criticising the “ultimately outrageous” comments flowing from Washington during the campaign, comparing them to hostile interventions from Russia.
“So we are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now is to achieve unity in Europe. It is possible to create unity in Europe,” he told a round table with other leaders.
Merz’s broadside against the US came despite President Donald Trump welcoming the conservative victory.
“Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Hitherto seen as an atlanticist, Merz said Trump had shown his administration to be “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe”.
Merz’s “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the USA step by step”, he added.

He even ventured to ask whether the next summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which has underpinned Europe’s security for decades, would still see “Nato in its current form”.
Following a campaign roiled by violent attacks for which people of migrant background were arrested, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc won 28.5 per cent of the vote, followed by the AfD with 20.5 per cent, said a projection published late on Sunday by ZDF broadcaster.
The AfD, which looked set to double its score from the previous vote and saw Sunday’s result as just the beginning. “Our hand remains outstretched to form a government,” leader Alice Weidel told supporters, adding “next time we’ll come first”.
Merz was heading into coalition talks without a strong negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc, it scored its second worst post-war result.
It remained unclear whether Merz would need one or two partners to form a majority, with the fate of smaller parties unclear in a way that could jumble parliamentary arithmetic.
A three-way coalition would likely be much more unwieldy, hampering Germany’s ability to show clear leadership.

Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their worst result since World War Two, with 16.5 per cent of the vote share, and Scholz conceding a “bitter” result, according to the ZDF projection, while the Greens were on 11.9 per cent.
Strong support particularly from younger voters pushed the far-left Die Linke party to 8.7 per cent of the vote.
The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5 per cent threshold to enter parliament.
Voter turnout at 83 per cent was the highest since before reunification in 1990, according to exit polls. Male voters tended more towards the right, while female voters showed stronger support for leftist parties.
“A three-party coalition runs the risk of more muddling through and more stagnation unless all parties involved realise that this is the last chance to bring change and to prevent the AfD from getting stronger,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
“As long as the new government does not bring significant change, foreign investments will also be held back, weakening Germany’s economic outlook.”
A brash economic liberal who has shifted the conservatives to the right, Merz is considered the antithesis of former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led Germany for 16 years.
Merz conditionally supports equipping Ukraine with longer-range Taurus missiles, a step Scholz’s government shied away from, and sees Europe as firmly anchored in Nato.
Sunday’s election came after the collapse last November of Scholz’s coalition of his SPD, the Greens and pro-market FDP in a row over budget spending.
Lengthy coalition talks could leave Scholz in a caretaker role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive the German economy after two consecutive years of contraction and as companies struggle against global rivals.
A delay would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges such as Trump threatening a trade war and attempting to fast track a ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.
Germans are more pessimistic about their living standards now than at any time since the financial crisis in 2008.
Attitudes towards migration have also hardened, a profound shift in German public sentiment since its “Refugees Welcome” culture during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, that the AfD has both driven and harnessed.


Man in Germany turns himself in after setting woman on fire

How will nations pay for a Trump-induced rush to arms?

Who is Michael Schumacher’s racing-driver son Mick, and what happened to his F1 career? After a series of costly crashes and poor rankings, Mick has struggled to stay in the fast lane

Appeasing Russia and forcing Ukraine into a peace deal will breed chaos

Germany

Germany’s conservatives win election as far-right AfD makes historic gains

Friedrich Merz addresses supporters in Berlin after the German national election. Photo: AP

Friedrich Merz drinks beer after the exit poll results are announced. Photo: Reuters

Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded defeat for his centre-left Social Democrats. Photo: AFP

Co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel. Photo: AFP

Germany polls could reshape Europe as conservative Merz aims to lead amid far-right surge

A resident casts a vote at a polling station in Berlin, Germany on February. 23, 2025, during the German national election. Photo: AP

Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, makes a speech in Berlin on Thursday. Photo: Kyodo

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talks to journalists at an election campaign stand. Photo: dpa

A woman lays flowers in Munich to commemorate a car-ramming attack, which left dozens injured and a mother and her toddler dead. Photo: Reuters

Elon Musk and J.D. Vance ramp up Romanian election dispute

Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on February 11. Photo: Reuters

Romanian independent far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu. Photo: Reuters

Europe can afford to defend itself without US but needs more coordination: study

An informal summit of European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 17, 2025. Photo: dpa

US expects mineral deal with Ukraine to be signed this week

The open pit mine of Zavallievsky Graphite in Zavallia, Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine’s Zelensky offers to give up presidency for Nato membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday. Photo: AP

The aftermath of a Russian air strike in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine via EPA-EFE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. Photo: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a wreath-laying ceremony in Moscow. Photo: Sputnik via Reuters

News

World

Europe

Friedrich Merz, set to become new chancellor, took aim at the United States after his victory in Germany’s election


Friedrich Merz, set to become new chancellor, took aim at the United States after his victory in Germany’s election.
