After two torturous months of campaigning, the wait is over. Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative CDU party, is on track to win Germany’s federal election. According to the official exit poll, published at 5pm UK time, his party has won 28.9 per cent of the vote. This means they are set to become the largest party in Berlin’s new parliament.
Hot on the heels of the CDU is the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which has achieved 19.7 per cent of the vote. While it is its highest ever result in a federal election, their projected vote share suggests the far-right party will be just shy of the 20 per cent mark – several percentage points lower than polls had predicted for much of the campaign. Still, with the party nearly doubling their vote share from the past election in 2021, co-leader of the party Alice Weidel was in a jubilant mood, declaring that the AfD was now ‘firmly anchored’ in the German mainstream.
Now, for Merz, the hard work begins
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