Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union ( CDU) won the top spot in the nation’s federal election, with right-wing Alternative for Germany ( AfD ) coming in second place with its best showing in history.
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The CDU/CSU bloc surged, earning 28.7 % of the vote on Feb. 23 due to massive discontent over inflation, surging energy costs, and failed migrant policies, followed by the AfD with 19.8 %, according to state public broadcaster ZDF.
Germany is now dealing with a demographic and economic turmoil, and strained relations with the new Trump administration are at an all-time low.
” Now we will observe, and from monday we start working… The universe out there is no waiting for us”, said CDU/CSU Friedrich Merz, to his followers.
” We have achieved a historic effect”, AfD head Alice Weidel, told group supporters at an election night meeting in Berlin, stating that the AfD was at last “firmly anchored” in Germany’s social environment, reported the BBC. But, Merz has ruled out any possibility of forming a state with the AfD, despite his adversary party’s close record of 20 % of the vote.
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the center-left party’s current president, is expected to be ousted for allowing his party to suffer in its worst election results since World War II.  ,
The SPD’s co-leader Lars Klingbeil is expected to be the group’s next president after taking over the management of the SPD political party in the Bundestag, Germany’s legislature, SPD Chairman Rolf Mützenich told gathering leaders on Sunday.
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Scholz, who will continue to serve as the caretaker chancellor, described the election results as “bitter” and acknowledged his party’s defeat after exit polls indicated the SPD plunging to 16 %-16.5 % of the vote.
The left-wing Greens won 12.3 %, won the far-left Die Linke party won 8.9 % of the vote, while the Free Democrats ( FDP ) and the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party, hovered around the 5 % threshold to qualify for parliament.
Scholz admitted,” We have to appreciate we have lost the election… This effect is worse, and I am liable for that to”.
The German Chancellor even congratulated Merz, while expressing his concerns over the AfD’s powerful showing, which has shaken up Germany’s post-Cold War creation.  ,
The AfD saw an amazing increase of more than nine percent points from the 2021 election after well fighting for stringent border controls, a reduction in asylum-seekers, ending support for the war in Ukraine, and eliminating” online no” climate requirements.
The fact that they received such a positive election result is something we cannot accept and I will never accept, said Scholz.
” We need to stick to what we have always said, we mustn’t work with the far-right”, he said, adding,” I am convinced that… our values are important so that our country remains significant”.
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Despite emerging as the largest bloc, the CDU/CSU scored its second-worst post-war results, leaving it with a weak hand in negotiations.
Merz’s center-right bloc is expected to lead talks with the SPD as a potential partner in a coalition, at the expense of the AfD, which he intends to exclude from power.  ,
Unfortunately for Merz, a” Black/Red” coalition would only receive a combined 46 % of the vote, which is too few to form a majority, putting him in a similar unfavorable position as Scholz. Scholz’s dysfunctional” Traffic Light Coalition,” which was deemed incapable of leading, was widely blamed for its collapse due to his alliance with the Greens and the FDP.
Since the loss of crucial Russian natural gas, which has forced crucial industrial plants to shut down, and multiple high-profile terrorist attacks, which included the arrival of more than 3.5 million third-world migrants between 2014 and 2024, have only exacerbated domestic issues.
Related:  , German Government Collapses After Chancellor Loses No Confidence Vote
Weidel stated that the AfD was “open to coalition negotiations” with the CDU/CSU but warned that” no policy change is possible in Germany” if her party’s offer to form a government was rejected.
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” We have fundamentally different views, for example on foreign policy, on security policy, in many other areas, regarding Europe, the euro, NATO”, responded Merz, adding that “you want the opposite of what we want, so there will be no cooperation”.
Merz has a history of veering off on important issues like nuclear energy, but there is speculation he will attempt to imitate the AfD’s hawkish stance on immigration. His predecessor, former CDU leader and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, led Germany’s push to deactivate its domestic nuclear power plants a decade ago.
Merz stated that he is still optimistic about putting together a coalition government by Easter, but many analysts are less optimistic.
