FRIEDRICH MERZ HAS said his “absolute priority” would be to strengthen Europe so that it can “achieve independence from the US”, after his Christian Democrats (CDU) party won Germany’s country’s parliament election. 

With over 28% of the vote, his CDU/CSU bloc handily defeated Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated a record of over 20%. 

Germany’s worsening economy and migration dominated the campaign, which saw business tycoon Elon Musk also weigh in at points in support of the AFD.

The result means that the Merz is is in pole position to become chancellor – making it the first time the centre-right party has won an election since Angela Merkel stepped down as leader seven years ago.

Speaking last night, Merz said Europe must boost its own defence capabilities amid growing US-Europe tensions over Ukraine and Nato funding.

“I am communicating closely with a lot of prime ministers, and heads of EU states and for me it is an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the US, step by step,” Merz said during a post-election panel on German broadcaster ARD. 

“After Donald Trump’s statements in the last week, it is clear that the Americans are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”

Merz said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America”.

“I am very curious to see what will happen between now and the Nato summit at the end of June,” he said.

But he added that it was questionable “whether we will still be talking about Nato in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly”.

Merz also reiterated his condemnation of “the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Elon Musk”. The US tech billionaire and key Trump ally stridently supported the AfD.

“The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and impertinent than the interventions we have seen from Moscow, so we are under massive pressure from two sides,” he said.

Merz has already ruled out a coalition with the AfD, and is expected to reach out first to the SPD, who saw their support plunge by almost 10% from when they finished first four years ago.

Olaf Scholz’s SPD led a coalition with The Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) but it collapsed late last year amid disagreements on resolving Germany’s recession hit economy and its climate policy.

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Merz already has the CDU’s Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) on side –the party have an unusual arrangement where the CDU don’t stand in the southeastern region against the CSU and instead work together.

But if Merz wants to ensure his coalition gain enough seats, he may also reach out to the Greens, although the the CSU has so far rejected this.

Much depends on the fate of smaller parties in the complex parliamentary arithmetic of the Bundestag. Several hovered around the 5% cutoff mark for re-entry into parliament and feared for their survival.

Merz may speak to the economic liberals in the FDU, but it is not clear at present whether the party will meet the 5% threshold required to ensure representation in parliament.

With reporting by Eoghan Dalton and © AFP 2025