German election: CDU wins, Merz aims for coalition by Easter

The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its leader Friedrich Merz were the big winners of German federal elections on Sunday with 28% of the vote, provisional results confirmed.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) was second with 20%, doubling its vote share from Germany's last election in 2021, which turned out to be the best result for a far-right party in the country since World War II.

However, several smaller parties tipped to make the 5% threshold needed to enter the Bundestag failed to do so, including the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the left-wing conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).