Friedrich Merz wins Germany’s election. But forming a coalition will be hard

As COUNTING ended in Germany’s election, three things were clear. The first is that the opposition conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), along with their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had won a clear victory—if an underwhelming one, with 29% of the vote. That paves the way for their candidate, Friedrich Merz (pictured), to take over from Olaf Scholz as chancellor after coalition talks. The second is that the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had surged to its best-ever result, with 21%, a result that will roughly double its number of seats in the Bundestag. The party dominated in its eastern strongholds. Alice Weidel, the party’s co-leader, hailed the “historic success”. The third is the extraordinary turnout. Some 83% of eligible Germans cast a ballot, the highest figure since reunification 35 years ago.