The conservative CDU/CSU party is set to be the largest party in the next German parliament with 30% of the vote, according to the first two exit polls. Friedrich Merz, who is now in pole position to become Germany’s next chancellor, hailed a “terrific election campaign” and said there’s no time to waste in forming a government.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to become the second biggest force in the country, with a record 20% of the vote, according to exit polls. Millions voted in Germany for a new federal government after the three-party coalition fell apart at the end of last year, prompting a snap election.
As predicted, it’s been a bad night for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, leader of the Social Democrats (SPD).
Sholz said the election results are “bitter” for his party, calling it a “defeat”.
Attention now turns to who Merz will try to form a coalition. Latest projections suggest he won’t be able to solely rely on the SPD, and he has previously said he won’t enter a coalition with the AfD.
What AfD leader, Alice Weidel, has been saying to the party faithful in the past hour is that basically there is a real democratic deficit here.
In other words, her party is expected to be the second biggest in Germany, but because all the other parties say they won’t work with the AfD, they’re not going to form part of the next coalition government.
Weidel was suggesting the next elections may come much sooner than people think. The inference there is that the AfD is going to be as difficult as possible in opposition.
If elections come early, the AfD believes momentum is on their side and that the party is in a really strong position to increase their vote even further.
Because, remember, this time they’ve doubled their share of the vote compared with the last election.
Merz was greeted with cheers when he stepped onto the stage at the CDU headquarters in Berlin.
He was joined by the head of the CSU, Markus Söder, thanked the voters for their trust and proclaimed: “We have won the Bundestag election”.
He says it has been “a historic election night” for his conservative party, and that the CDU and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU, “worked very well together and prepared very well for this election”.
Merz adds that he is “aware of the responsibility that now lies ahead” of him.
He tells 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 again”.
But that starts tomorrow, he says. Right now, it’s time to celebrate.
Merz was greeted with cheers when he stepped onto the stage at the CDU headquarters in Berlin.
He was joined by the head of the CSU, Markus Söder, thanked the voters for their trust and proclaimed: “We have won the Bundestag election”.
He says it has been “a historic election night” for his conservative party, and that the CDU and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU, “worked very well together and prepared very well for this election”.
Merz adds that he is “aware of the responsibility that now lies ahead” of him.
He tells 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 again”.
But that starts tomorrow, he says. Right now, it’s time to celebrate.
Scholz told supporters in Berlin that “we are fighting for democracy”.
“Now we have the far-right – the AfD – and the fact they got such a good election result is something we cannot accept and I will never accept,” the Social Democrats (SPD) leader says.
As a reminder, the two exit polls showed AfD receiving the second largest portion of the vote share.
“We need to stick to what we have always said, we mustn’t work with the far-right”, Scholz says, adding that he hopes other political parties will “keep that promise”.
He moves on to say that he wants “a united” SPD that “really makes sure that social democracy remains [an] important political force in the future”.
“I am convinced that… our values are important so that our country remains significant,” the German chancellor says.
Dr Jana Puglierin from the European Council on Foreign Relations says she believes the exit poll results are in line with a “broader trend throughout Europe”.
“I think Germany has become a bit more normal, we have been an outlier in Europe with relatively small numbers of the far-right,” she says, referring to the rise of the AfD.
The senior policy fellow tells the BBC that this is “worrying me greatly”, adding that a new coalition government will have to deliver.
It was “crucial” for the leader of the conservative CDU party, Friedrich Merz, to have his party receive 30% or more of the vote share, Dr Puglierin says, adding that below that figure “opens the field for possible competitors”
By BBC News
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