Germany's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc claimed a clear victory in the European parliamentary elections, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made gains to take second place, according to projected results on Sunday night.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition suffered at the polls, with his Social Democrats (SPD) and his primary coalition partners, the Greens, both trailing the AfD.
Scholz's SPD slipped to 13.9% to 14%, according to the projections from public broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
That would potentially be the worst result in a democratic nationwide election in more than a century for the centre-left SPD, which has historically been one of the dominant parties in German politics.
The opposition CDU/CSU won between 30.2% and 30.3% of the vote, according to the projections.
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz hailed the result for his Christian Democrats (CDU) and said it shows German voters want a clear shift in policy away from Scholz's government.
"With this European election, we are back in first place among the German parties by a wide margin," Merz said.
"Things can't go on as they have over the last two and a half years," he added, referring to Scholz's time in office.
Bavarian state premier Markus Söder of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said the results should be read as a stern rebuke to Scholz and his government's policies.
Scholz's coalition "has de facto been voted out by the citizens," Söder declared.
The AfD, which sits well to the right of the CDU/CSU, placed second nationally with 15.9%, a five percentage point gain from the 2019 European Parliament elections. In the AfD strongholds of eastern Germany, the populist party led the field.
The AfD's co-chairman, Tino Chrupalla, hailed the projections as a "historic result" for the party. He noted that projections showed the AfD with strong leads throughout the former communist East Germany.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, meanwhile, described the results as a "bitter defeat" for the SPD.
"I think it is crystal clear that things have to change," Klingbeil said.
Scholz's main coalition partner, the Greens, saw support fall to 11.9%, according to the projections. That would be a major drop from the last European Parliament election, when the Greens won 20.5% of the vote.
"This is not the standard with which we went into this election, and we will work through this together," Green Party chairwoman Ricarda Lang said of the party's losses.
The liberal-conservative Free Democrats (FDP), the junior partner in Scholz's three-way coalition, slid only slightly and stood at 5% to 5.1% in the projections.
The newly founded populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) hit 6% to 6.1%, according to the projections, while the far-left The Left party tumbled to just 2.7%.
According to forecasts, voter turnout in Germany was 65%, up from 61.4% in 2019. For the first time this year, 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in the European Parliament election in Germany.
As in many other EU countries, observers had expected a significant boost in support for right-wing parties in the European Parliament elections. Some opinion polls had put support for the AfD at more than 20% a few months ago.
AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel credited the AfD with making a strong finish "after a bumpy start to the election campaign," in which the party was dogged by negative headlines tied to several scandals involving AfD candidates.
The AfD's support figures fell significantly in the wake of large demonstrations in January and February following reports of a secret far-right meeting in Potsdam.
The meeting centred on so-called remigration, plans to repatriate migrants at a large scale. More recent scandals involving the AfD's top EU candidates Maximilian Krah and Petr Bystron have also affected their standing.
Both Krah and Bystron have been in the headlines for weeks due to possible links to pro-Russian networks. According to media reports, prosecutors in Germany are investigating possible money payments to both politicians. In addition, a former top aide to Krah was arrested on suspicion of spying for China
AfD leaders asked Krah to stop appearing at campaign events after he came under widespread criticism for an interview in which he defended some members of the Nazi SS paramilitary.
Following Krah's remarks, the right-wing ID (Identity and Democracy) group in the European Parliament expelled the AfD from the faction.
