Provisional results confirmed that mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won Germany's national election​, while a far-right party surged to become the nation's second-largest.

The results released by the electoral authority showed the conservative Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats winning a combined majority of seats in the national legislature after small parties failed to make the electoral threshold.

The success of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is a sign of the times. Across Europe, far-right parties once on the fringe have gone mainstream.