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Germany’s Friedrich Merz promised to move swiftly to unite Europe and “achieve independence” from the US after his centre-right bloc won federal elections.
In an election where Germany shifted to the right, Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) came first with 28.5 per cent of the vote on Sunday, leaving it needing at least one coalition partner to secure a working parliamentary majority.
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second, doubling its vote to its highest ever share of about 21 per cent.
The liberal Free Democrats and the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) failed to win enough votes to enter the Bundestag, boosting the number of seats held by larger parties.
The result gives Merz the option of forming a two-party government with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SPD), albeit with a slim parliamentary majority.
But the strong showing by the AfD and the leftwing Die Linke risks limiting Merz’s room for manoeuvre to increase investment, including expanding the defence budget.
Within hours of polls closing, Merz declared that Germany had to fundamentally remake its security arrangements and end a decades-long reliance on Washington, saying US President Donald Trump was “largely indifferent” to Europe’s fate.
“I am in close contact with many prime ministers — heads of government of the EU,” Merz said. “And it must be an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we actually achieve independence from the USA.”
He added: “I wouldn’t have thought I’d have to say something like that . . . But after Donald Trump’s statements, it is clear that the Americans, at least this American government, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”
Merz said he was eager to form a government as quickly as possible given the huge challenges facing Germany and Europe. “The world will not wait for us,” he added.
The euro strengthened as much as 0.7 per cent before pulling back to trade up just 0.1 per cent at $1.047 while Germany’s benchmark Dax index rose 0.8 per cent in Frankfurt.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, on Monday told reporters she hoped Merz was able to form a government “as fast as possible, as we really need to move on with decisions at the European level which requires German participation”.
Merz, who said he was unsure about the future of Nato, also highlighted Washington’s interventions in the German election campaign, and compared it to Russian interference.
The Trump administration has openly courted the AfD and has criticised Germany’s mainstream politicians for refusing to co-operate with a party that has flirted with Nazi-era slogans, urged an end to sanctions on Russia and called for mass deportations of migrants.
Trump in recent weeks has blindsided Europe by holding direct talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine and has threatened to pull US security guarantees from the continent. Germany hosts the largest contingent of American troops stationed in Europe.
Trump earlier on Sunday described the election result as proof that “the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years”.
Merz has little option but to form a coalition with the SPD, which won a little over 16 per cent of the vote — its worst result since 1887. But he avoided the scenario of needing more than one coalition partner, an unwieldy outcome that party strategists had feared.
The Greens, who were disappointed by their showing of less than 12 per cent, did not win enough seats to be a viable alternative to the SPD.
The results mark a big swing to the right in Germany after a series of deadly attacks by migrants fuelled anti-immigrant sentiment.
Voter turnout reached its highest since German reunification in 1990, according to exit poll data, at a level of 84 per cent.
Merz will inherit an economy that has suffered from two years of stagnation amid high energy prices and Chinese competition. The CDU leader has promised to drive reforms and revitalise growth as well as help Germany to play its full role in Europe.
But the AfD and Die Linke won enough seats to block changes to the “debt brake” that limits German government borrowing, making it more difficult for a new government to overhaul crumbling infrastructure and significantly raise defence spending.
Holger Schmieding, economist at Berenberg Bank, warned: “Merz could be a chancellor with little fiscal space.”
Alice Weidel, the AfD co-leader, celebrated the party doubling its vote share from 2021, to secure the biggest far-right gains in Germany since the second world war.
“We have led a magnificent campaign,” Weidel said, as she stressed her party was open to coalition talks with the CDU/CSU to meet “the will of the people”.
Scholz indicated he would step back from frontline politics after “a bitter result” for the SPD.
Data visualisation by Martin Stabe and Jonathan Vincent. Additional reporting by William Sandlund in Hong Kong and Henry Foy in Brussels