Provisional results confirmed that mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won Germany's national election​, while a far-right party surged to become the nation's second-largest.

The success of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is a sign of the times. Across Europe, far-right parties once on the fringe have gone mainstream.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leads the polls with an estimated 29% of the vote, going by the exit polls, while the incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) is third with 16%.