The Alternative for Germany’s surge was driven by popular anger over illegal immigration, the resultant crime, and high energy costs driven by green energy policies
(Feb. 24, 2025 / JNS) — Germany’s conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) won Sunday’s election, receiving 28.6 per cent of the votes.
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The CSU, a sister party of the CDU, runs only in the German state of Bavaria, while the CDU runs in the other 15 states. However, the parties pool their votes in federal elections.
Turnout was 83.5 per cent, the highest since unification in 1990, German news outlet DW reported.
It now falls to CDU candidate Friedrich Merz, 69, to form a coalition. He returned to politics in 2021 after a 12-year hiatus and rose through the ranks to the party’s leadership, once held by Angela Merkel.
His CDU-CSU bloc holds 208 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. The first-place party will need to secure 316 seats to govern.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) made the most dramatic gains, doubling its vote to 21 per cent from 10.4 per cent in the 2021 elections.
The far-right party’s surge was driven by popular anger over illegal immigration, the resultant crime, and high energy costs driven by green energy policies, which have shut down Germany’s nuclear power plants in favour of renewable wind and solar.
“This is a historic success for us—our best result ever,” AfD’s chancellor candidate and co-leader, Alice Weidel, told broadcaster ARD. “We extend our hand to offer cooperation with the CDU. Otherwise change won’t be possible in Germany.”
While it placed second overall, the AfD took the lead in eastern Germany, including the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
Although AfD won 152 seats and would give Merz a comfortable 360-seat majority, he has already declared he won’t form a coalition with the party, telling public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that it is “out of the question,” despite cooperating with the AfD in the past, as in January when he partnered with it to try and pass a tough immigration bill.
His CDU, along with other mainstream parties, have agreed to form a “firewall” against AfD.
AfD has been officially classified in Germany as a “suspected” extremist party.
Merz, who said he prefers to have only one coalition partner, will likely strive for a coalition with the previous ruling party, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD), which holds 120 seats, down from 206. The party fell by 9.3 per cent, securing only 16.4 per cent of the vote in the election.
The process could take weeks or months, DW reported. “We have nearly eight weeks until Easter now, and I think that should be enough time—the maximum time—to form a government in Germany,” said Merz.
Merz appears to hold conservative views on abortion and has been a supporter of nuclear power. He has also pushed for less bureaucracy.
“Almost 25 years ago, he lamented the effects of German migration policy, spoke of ‘problems with foreigners’ and insisted that there should be a ‘dominant guiding culture’ in Germany,” DW reported.
World leaders congratulated Merz on his victory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night held a “warm conversation” with Merz, according to an Israeli government statement.
The chancellor-designate thanked the prime minister and said he would invite him for an official visit to Germany, “in overt defiance of the scandalous International Criminal Court decision to label the Prime Minister a war criminal,” the statement continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated all who voted conservative on his Truth Social website. “Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration,” he said.
Merz, however, made a tough statement on Sunday calling for “independence” from America, even before the final election tally was in.
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” he said.
“I never thought I would have to say something like this on a television program. But after Donald Trump’s statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he added.
He talked about replacing NATO.
“I am very curious to see how we are heading toward the NATO summit at the end of June,” he said. “Whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
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