Exit polls show the center-right Christian Democratic Union party leading, with the AfD party heading towards the strongest showing of the far-right since World War II.

Centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc emerged as the frontrunner in Germany’s national election on Sunday, though without a decisive victory, according to exit polls by ARD and ZDF public television.

Europe must seek to “achieve independence” from the United States, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after his opposition conservatives won elections on Sunday, in a vote that also saw surging support for the far-right.