German Elections: Christian Democrats Lead With 30% Of Vote As Far-Right AfD Surge To Second Place With Record 20% Of Vote – Exit Polls

deadline.com:

Friedrich Merz is on track to become Germany’s next chancellor after his center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) party took roughly 30% of the vote in landmark German elections on Sunday, according to two early exit polls.

In spite of CDU’s lead the country’s political future looks far from certain due to a surge in support for the the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party which is set to come in second with a record 19.5-20% of the vote.

The center-left Social Democrats (SDP) have taken 16% of the vote, in what is potentially its worst result ever; followed by the Greens with 13.3%, and then the Left party with 8.6%, the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) with 4.9%, left-wing populist BSW party with 4.7% and others with 3.9%.

The elections were called following the collapse last year of the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is leader of the SDP.