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.

Germany's conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who came out on top in the snap election results, is aiming to close a coalition agreement with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD, which came third in the elections.

The centre-right party's leader Friedrich Merz said CDU and SPD are to enter talks to form a coalition, one day after the German election on Sunday. View on euronews

Friedrich Merz and the CDU's victory in the German election present a shift in Germany's foreign policy, with an emphasis on strengthening European defense capabilities and a potential move towards greater independence from the US.

The Left (Die Linke) and the far-right AfD party scored big in Germany's federal election on Sunday. But their success has less to do with the fact that they offer more or less radical alternatives to other parties than in their style of political discourse — and more moderate parties would be wise to learn a thing or two from this.