The conservative bloc formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has obtained 28.5% of the votes, according to preliminary official results, once the ballots from 296 out of 299 electoral districts have been counted.
"We have won these Bundestag (Lower House) elections. The world does not wait, and neither do we, nor do long and difficult coalition negotiations," said the next Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz.
Merz, forced to form a coalition, will have in the opposition benches in Parliament as the main opposition force the AfD, whose candidate for Chancellor, Alice Weidel, said upon learning the forecasts that her hand "is always extended to enter the Government and make the will of the people a reality."
AfD entered the German Parliament for the first time in 2017 with 12.6% and became the leading opposition party when a 'grand coalition' was formed between social democrats and conservatives, whose leader reiterated today his firm rejection of cooperating with the far-right in a televised roundtable with all the candidates.
Weidel has a private life contrary to the ideology of her party. She is in a romantic relationship with Sarah Bossard, a Swiss filmmaker originally from Sri Lanka. They are united civilly, but they have not married because they believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Additionally, they have two adopted children, but neither has chosen to be a biological mother as they do not consider fertility treatments natural.