BERLIN — Germany woke Monday to the aftermath of a bruising election in which the center-right conservatives won the most votes but far-right nationalists surged to huge gains, causing dismay in a country deeply wary of its Nazi past.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is under surveillance by German intelligence for suspected far-right extremism, experienced its largest ever share of the vote, garnering the support of Elon Musk and others in the Trump administration.
The White House’s alleged interference in the run up to the vote sparked unusually fierce criticism from Friedrich Merz, the leader of the victorious Christian Democratic Union, who will lead coalition talks to form Germany’s next government.
Merz told supporters at a party event in Berlin on Sunday night, “I have no illusions at all about what is happening from America. Take a look at the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Mr. Elon Musk.”
If Merz, who said Monday that he plans to quickly form Germany’s next government, does become the next chancellor then his in-tray will be bursting.
Domestically, he must deal with widespread unrest over immigration at home, fueled by a spate of high-profile attacks in recent weeks and a flagging economy. That might be harder after the AfD and the radical Left party won enough seats to block constitutional changes needed to loosen state borrowing limits — changes economists say are essential to reviving growth.
Internationally, Merz must also navigate the fraying bond between Washington and Europe, of which Germany is the most populous country and biggest economy. There is also the matter of the war in Ukraine over which the AfD and radical Left’s sway may also stymie raising Germany’s defense and military aid budget.
All the while Merz will have one eye on the far-right, which has been surging across Europe while enjoying mutual support from President Donald Trump and his aides.
Musk has previously endorsed the AfD, hosting party events on the X social media platform that he owns and appearing at a campaign rally during which he repeated one of the party’s most controversial points of view, which is that young Germans should no longer feel guilty for the events of the Holocaust in their country’s past.
Merz said Sunday that “the interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow. So we are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now is really to create unity in Europe.”
By design, Germany’s voting system means it is very difficult for one party to govern alone, forcing leaders to work together and form coalitions to govern this consensus-based country. Merz said that he hoped to form a government by Easter, but added that cooperating with the second-placed Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was “completely out of the question.”
Germany’s political establishment has long maintained an informal “firewall” against cooperating with the far-right that is seen as a bulwark against fascism.
Merz’s CDU party won 28.5% of the vote and 208 of the 630 seats in Germany’s parliament, according to results that are set to be validated by lawmakers March 15.
The AfD won 20.5% and 152 seats, while the ruling center-left Social Democratic Party fell to 15.5% and 120 seats. Former chancellor Olaf Scholz has been effectively voted out of office, calling the interventions by Washington “disgusting” Sunday.
The environmentally-focused Greens got 11.6% and 85 seats, the leftist Die Linke party received 8.8% and 64 seats, while the pro-business Free Democrats and left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance failed to meet the 5% threshold that would allow them to enter parliament.
Alexander Smith reported from Berlin.
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