Friedrich Merz and his party won, Elon Musk didn’t seem to move voters, and more lessons from an early German vote with big implications for Europe.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded his center-left Social Democrat party’s worst postwar defeat.

Friedrich Merz, a conservative rival of Angela Merkel, is on track to become the next chancellor, though the far-right AfD is expected to make historic gains.

U.S. President Donald Trump hailed Sunday as a "great day for Germany" after an election in which the centre-right opposition won first place followed by the far-right AfD with its strongest result ever.

Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory in a national election Sunday, while Alternative for Germany nearly doubled its support, the strongest showing for a hard-right party since World War II,