Friedrich Merz is set to become Germany’s next chancellor after his centre-Right Christian Democratic Union [CDU] party won the election on Sunday night.

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.

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.