by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News February 23, 2025

Germany’s conservatives claimed victory in Sunday’s national elections while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party doubled its support at the polls.

Friedrich Merz said his conservatives were on course victory and vowed to move quickly to put together a coalition government.

“The world out there isn’t waiting for us, and it isn’t waiting for long-drawn-out coalition talks and negotiations,” Merz told supporters. “We must now become capable of acting quickly again.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded defeat for Social Democrats after what he called “a bitter election result.” Projections showed his party finishing in third place with its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election.

The projections, based on exit polls and partial counting, put support for Merz’s Union bloc at just under 29% and AfD at about 20% — roughly double its result from 2021.

The projections support for Scholz’s Social Democrats at just over 16%, far lower than in the last election and below their previous all-time low of 20.5% from 2017. The environmentalist Greens, their remaining partners in the outgoing government, were at 12-13%.

AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, said that “we have become the second-strongest force.” The party’s strongest previous showing was 12.6% in 2017, when it first entered the national parliament.

Weidel said that her party is “open for coalition negotiations” with Merz’s party, and that “otherwise, no change of policy is possible in Germany.” Merz has repeatedly ruled out working with AfD, as have other mainstream parties.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told cheering supporters that “we have achieved something historic today.”

“We have gained 100%,” he said. “We are now the political center and we have left the fringes behind us.”

Voter turnout in the German election on Sunday jumped to 83%, according to public broadcaster ZDF, representing the highest turnout since German reunification in 1990. This compares to turnout of 76.4% in the last national elections in 2021.

The election took place seven months earlier than originally planned after Scholz’s unpopular coalition collapsed in November, three years into a term that was increasingly marred by infighting.

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  Conservatives claim victory in Germany; AfD doubles support, WorldTribune.com