German Chancellor Olaf Scholz concedes defeat as Friedrich Merz's CDU/CSU wins general election

Friedrich Merz's CDU/CSU conservative alliance has won the German general election with 28.6% of the vote, Deutsche Welle reported citing preliminary results announced by Germany's federal electoral body.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has conceded defeat.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured 20.8% of the vote, which is the party's strongest result to date at the federal level.

Scholz's Social Democrats' (SPD) share of the vote dropped to 16.4%, putting them at third place.

The SPD's junior coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens, won 11.6%.

The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) netted only 4.3%, meaning that it will not enter the Bundestag as it did not pass the 5% threshold for representation in parliament. The same goes for the left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which got 4.97%.

The socialist Left Party achieved 8.8% of the vote.

Friedrich Merz, chairman of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is set to become Germany's next chancellor based on preliminary election results. His election victory this weekend completes a remarkable return for Merz, who only rejoined the Bundestag in 2021 after a 12-year hiatus from politics, according to Deutsche Welle. 

The 69-year-old will be the oldest chancellor since Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of the new Federal Republic of Germany, who took office in 1949 at the age of 73.