German election: Merz's conservatives celebrate, far right enjoys record result

Friedrich Merz will try to form a coalition after his Christian Democrats won less than 30% of the vote.

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"Let's celebrate tonight and in the morning, we'll get to work," he told cheering supporters. His immediate priority is to try to form a government with the third-placed Social Democrats of Olaf Scholz.

Even before the result was clear, Merz said his top priority was unity in Europe, so that "step by step, we can really achieve independence from the US".

The other big winner in Sunday's vote was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), who are celebrating a record second-place result of 20.8%.

The AfD's candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, did a victory lap of her supporters, but even her party had hoped for a greater result and the mood at AfD HQ was subdued.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgenlw94n3o

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