CDU party leader Friedrich Merz speaks during a debate on immigration at the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
In Saxony, our correspondent hears why young voters are increasingly supporting the AfD. The party is polling consistently in second place ahead of a snap election next Sunday. LO
An election poster of CDU top candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz is pictured as the sun rises in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/)
- Election posters, showing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and CDU top candidate Friedrich Merz, stand on a meadow in Nieder-Erlenbach near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael
When a normal person is accused of being a Nazi, how do they respond? And how should they? This is a dilemma facing millions of German voters who want their government to jettison its liberal politics in the face of illegal immigration,
He has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as it grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
These include an economic malaise that has gripped the country in recent years, with its car-and-export-orientated economy looking vulnerable, as well as a thorny debate over immigration and integration that has seen the likes of the AfD rise in prominence and popularity.
Friedrich Merz's CDU party emerged as the largest party in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, earning 28.6% of the vote.
One of the first acts of Chancellor-elect Friedrich Merz (Christian Democrat, CDU) after the election was to invite the right-wing extremist Israeli Prime Minister to Berlin.
Paul Hockenos is a journalist and author based in Berlin. His most recent book is “Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall, and the Birth of the New Berlin.”
Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats took the highest portion of a record number of votes. An ascendant far right, crumbling international order and sluggish German economy face the incoming chancellor.
Germany’s political system is set up to exclude extremists. Yet the country is waking up to a new political reality that has lurched to the right with the once outcast Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now firmly established in German politics.
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