German election: Christian Democrats win

Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) party has gained the highest percentage of seats in the German election, with 28.6%.

The German electoral authority yesterday announced this in the country’s preliminary election results.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) were the runners-up with 20.8%, and in third place was the centre-left Social Democrats with 16.4%.

However, the election of Germany’s new chancellor by the Bundestag won’t take place until a governing coalition has been formed. This could take months.

CDU/CSU candidate Friedrich Merz is now be the frontrunner to succeed chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Merz has already claimed victory, urging “independence” from the United States.

“I never thought I would ever need to say something like that on television, but after the latest statements made by Donald Trump last week, it is clear that the Americans mostly don’t care about the fate of Europe one way or another,” he said during a post-election panel airing on state broadcaster ARD.

“We have won this and we’ve won it clearly,” he said.

“I will now attempt to form a government which represents the entire republic and which will tackle the country’s problems.”

Merz said he would prefer one coalition partner instead of two.

Scholz acknowledged his “election defeat” and described his party’s performance as a “bitter election result”.

Green Party lead candidate Robert Habeck defended his party’s projected 13% of the vote as “respectable”.

AfD’s Alice Weidel said the party is prepared to enter a coalition government.

She claimed the CDU has effectively adopted most of the AfD’s manifesto.

“They’re going to have to explain to their voters how they’re going to implement those promises while working with left-wing parties. If they form a government with the SPD and Greens, then interim chancellor Merz won’t last four years.”

– DW