Exit polls published by ZDF and ARD state television channels showed that the CDU/CSU alliance won 28.5-29 percent of the votes, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, as predicted by earlier polls.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is in third place, while the Green Party is in the fourth place, and the Left Party is fifth.

The unknown now is the percentage that the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) could win, as five percent of the vote is required to join the German Bundestag (Lower House).

The AfD would become the second political force in the country and would achieve a historic result compared to the 10.4 percent it won in the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Now everything depends on whether the FDP and the BSW join the Bundestag to know what kind of coalition the leader of the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, Friedrich Merz, who would be the next chancellor, will form.

Local media do not rule out a grand coalition between the conservative parties and the SPD members, which would give them 327 of 630 seats in the Lower House.

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