Conservatives win German election – as far-right AfD makes historic gains and Olaf Scholz’s SPD collapses
Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) have won the country’s federal elections – as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) scores its best-ever result and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party collapses.
The leader of the CDU/CSU bloc, Friedrich Merz, who will most likely become Germany’s next chancellor, said he would work on forming a government as soon as possible, though it is not yet clear how easy that will be.
Speaking on Sunday evening, Mr Merz said: “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.”
As it happened: Conservatives and far-right set for record vote shares
Preliminary results of the official election count show the CDU/CSU took the largest share of the vote with 28.5%, while the AfD won a record 20.8% – its best result in a federal election since its formation in 2013.
Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) collapsed to third with 16.4% – its worst post-war election result – while its previous coalition partners the Greens took 11.6%.
In some surprise results, the hard-left Left Party surged clear of 5% – the minimum vote share needed to get seats in the Bundestag – while the newly-founded left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) fell just short.
The Free Democratic Party (FDP), a former coalition partner and liberal party, also saw its vote collapse to 4.4%, taking them out of parliament.
Despite the AfD’s result, Mr Merz’s bloc and the rest of the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the far-right as part of a long-running pact known as the “firewall”.
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Chancellor concedes election defeat
‘The world out there is not waiting’
Mr Merz faces complex coalition negotiations and whether he will need one or two partners to form a pact will depend on how many parties get into parliament.
The 69-year-old admitted it would “not be easy”, adding: “The most important thing is to re-establish a viable government in Germany as quickly as possible… The world out there is not waiting for us.”
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The woman at the top of Germany’s far-right AfD party
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Later on Sunday, while appearing on a German broadcaster’s post-election panel of party leaders, Mr Merz took aim at Donald Trump and said the US president’s administration has shown itself to be “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe”.
He called the comments made by American officials during negotiations on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine “ultimately outrageous” – and said: “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.”
The CDU/CSU won 28.5% of the vote, with Friedrich Merz likely to be Germany’s next chancellor Pic: AP
After exit polls on Sunday evening showed the CDU/CSU bloc in the lead, the US president said it was a “great day” for Germany.
He wrote on Truth Social that the “people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration”.
‘We have arrived’
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader and chancellor nominee, hailed her party’s results and said “our hand remains outstretched to form a government” – despite the “firewall” pact.
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AfD has best showing in German election
“We have arrived as a party of the people,” she told a crowd, before saying that without the AfD in coalition, “no change of policy is possible in Germany”.
Co-leader Tino Chrupalla added the party “achieved something historic today”, and said: “We are now the political centre and we have left the fringes behind us.”
On Sunday evening, anti-fascist demonstrations broke out in Frankfurt and Berlin in protest at the far-right party’s performance.
Protests broke out after the exit poll showed the AfD was set to be the second-largest party in Germany. Pics: AP
Anti-fascist protests also broke out in Berlin
‘Very bitter’ election for SPD
Conceding the election, Mr Scholz told voters that “the result is very bitter for the SPD”.
While still chancellor until the government votes on his replacement, he added he will not represent the party “in a federal government led by the CDU, nor will I negotiate for it”.
Olaf Scholz’s SPD party collapsed to the third largest party – with 20.8% of the vote. Pic: AP
Meanwhile Christian Lindner – FDP party leader and former finance minister, whose dismissal by Mr Scholz led to the collapse of the coalition government – also resigned after a bruising night.
Posting on social media after it became clear his party would not meet the 5% vote threshold, he said: “The parliamentary elections brought defeat for the FDP but hopefully a new start for Germany. That’s what I fought for.
“Now I’m retiring from active politics. I have only one feeling: gratitude for almost 25 intense, challenging years full of productive work and debate.”
Christian Lindner’s dismissal as finance minister led to the collapse of the SPD/FDP/Greens coalition. Pic: AP
BSW narrowly out as Left surges
Founded in January last year, the BSW came just short of entering parliament with 4.9% of the vote.
But despite doubts the party could rally before the election, the Left Party made a comeback and surged to 8.8%.
Party candidate Heidi Reichinnek told German national broadcaster ARD: “I am so incredibly happy about our result.”
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And while the Greens still lost votes after its stint in the coalition, it recorded the smallest losses of the three parties – making Sunday’s vote “mixed” for the party’s chancellor, Robert Habeck.
He also said the vote showed “the centre is weakened overall, and everyone should look at themselves and ask whether they didn’t contribute to that”.
Pro-Western candidate Nicusor Dan has unexpectedly beaten hard-right populist George Simion in the Romanian presidential election.
Mr Simion, 38, and his rival – a centrist who’s mayor of Bucharest – faced off in the second round of the contest.
According to the official tally, Mr Dan was leading by nearly nine percentage points with more than 98% of the votes counted.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Dan and his supporters celebrated the exit polls. Pic: Reuters
After exit polls suggested he wasn’t going to win, Trump-supporting Mr Simion rejected the result and said estimates put him 400,000 votes ahead.
Speaking after voting ended, Mr Simion said his election was “clear” as he posted on Facebook: “I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!”
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George Simion on Trump, the EU – and his message to UK
Romania’s last election was annulled after its highest court ruled the leading candidate, nationalist Calin Georgescu, should be disqualified due to claims of electoral interference by Russia.
The result is surprising because in the first round, 38-year-old Mr Simion, founder of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), took 40.96% of the vote – almost 20 points ahead.
George Simion rejected the polls but official counting saw him slip behind. Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Dan celebrated on the streets of the capital Bucharest. Pic: AP
An opinion poll on Friday had it much closer, but still suggested the two men were virtually tied.
Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, is running as an independent and has pledged to clamp down on corruption.
He is also staunchly pro-EU and NATO, and has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security.
When voting closed at 9pm local time, 11.6 million people – about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. About 1.64 million Romanians living abroad also took part.
About 11.6 million people – 64% of eligible voters – cast ballots. Pic: AP
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The election is being closely watched across Europe amid a rise of support for President Donald Trump.
After polls closed, Mr Dan said “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in the latest vote “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said.
“There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report issued last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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A British surgeon working in southern Gaza has compared the region to a “slaughterhouse” because of the daily bombardment from Israeli forces.
Dr Tom Potokar, who is based at the European Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, offered his assessment of Israel’s military offensive after Palestinian health officials reported at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed their troops have begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
In a video, Dr Potokar said it was “another day of devastation here in Gaza”, adding: “The stories coming from the north… absolutely horrific… particularly around the Indonesian Hospital.”
“I mean, it’s difficult to describe in words what’s happening here… [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead.
“If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse.”
Mourners at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
His reference to Cambodia’s killing fields refers to when more than a million people were murdered in mass executions and buried by the extreme communist guerrilla group, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
A family in grief at a funeral on Sunday in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Dr Potokar described the impact on those on the ground, saying: “We’ve been operating all morning so far and [treating] awful explosive injuries… [including] one young woman with leg fracture and shoulder fracture and a large wound on her buttock, who came in yesterday and is not yet aware that everyone in our family was killed in the onslaught.”
Israel has launched an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
On Sunday, it announced and launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza.
It came after airstrikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said: “Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment”.
The ministry also said the bombardment had forced the closure of the Indonesian Hospital, the main hospital serving people in northern Gaza.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said more than 48 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the area which includes tents sheltering displaced people.
In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the Nuseirat camp’s Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Civil Defence – which operates under the Hamas-run government – reported that 19 people were killed in several strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
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Ceasefire talks are taking place in Qatar this weekend – with Israel saying they involve discussions on ending the war as well as a truce and hostage deal.
A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any lasting truce must include the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the exile of Hamas militants.
But a senior Israeli official added there had been little progress so far during talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
Sky News Arabia reported Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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