German election winner: My priority will be independence from US

Merz, who faces complex negotiations with his party’s traditional centre-left rival to form a coalition government after ruling out the second-placed hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Sunday that it would be his “absolute priority” to strengthen Europe so it does not have to rely on Washington for its defence.

“I never thought I would have to say something like that on a TV programme but after Donald Trump’s latest comments in the last week, it is clear that the Americans, or at least this portion of the Americans, this government, care very little about the fate of Europe,” the chancellor-in-waiting told a televised roundtable of political leaders.

Merz said he was not sure that NATO would exist in its “current form” by the time of the next meeting of the transatlantic military alliance in June, “or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly”.

“That is my absolute priority, I have no illusions at all about what will come out of America,” Merz said.

According to preliminary results, Merz's Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) alliance received 28.6 percent of the vote and 208 seats in Sunday's election. The AfD, which doubled its result from the previous election, received 152 seats and 20.8 percent of the vote.

After ruling in a highly unpopular three-party coalition, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), led by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, received 120 seats, its worst showing since the end of World War Two.

The Greens took home 85 seats, followed by Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), a left-wing populist, with one seat, and Die Linke, a democratic socialist, with 64 seats.

Merz, a longtime supporter of transatlantic ties, campaigned on a conservative platform promising to curb unauthorized migration and slash taxes and red tape amid widespread discontent with immigration and the economy.

Merz, a longtime rival of former Chancellor Angela Merkel who has led the CDU in a more conservative and pro-business direction, will need the help of the SDP to form a governing majority in the Bundestag.

“If we have one partner, it will be easier; if we need two partners, it will be harder, but even in that case, it will have to be successful,” Merz said.

“The main thing is to create a government in Germany that is capable of acting as quickly as possible, with a good parliamentary majority. Because, dear friends, the world out there is not waiting for us and it is not waiting for lengthy coalition talks and negotiations.”