According to the first exit polls, the conservative CDU-CSU party in Germany is leading the European elections with 29.5% of the votes. According to exit polls released by the German channel Ard, the far-right AfD party is in second place with 16.5% and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD is in third place with 14%. The Greens would stand at 12%.
According to estimates released recently by the European Parliament in Brussels, based on exit polls, in Germany the EPP (CDU/CSU) would have won 30 seats in the Chamber, the Greens 16, the S&D (SPD) 14, the Left (Die Linke) 4 , Renew Europe (Fdp and Freie Waehler) 8. The Non-Members would have 19 seats: the category includes AfD, recently expelled from the ID group. Other parties (newly elected without belonging to a political group or to the Non-Members, such as the BSW), would have the remaining 5 seats. Germany will have 96 seats in the next Hemicycle. For the first ‘real’ data, not based on polls, we will have to wait for the polls to close in Italy at 11pm.
Chrupalla: “Historic result”
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla defined his party’s result as “historic”: “We achieved a super result and I believe that during the evening it will go even higher.” Co-leader Alice Weidel also spoke of a “super result”.
A few months ago, the party had polled above 20%. But the AfD’s support declined significantly after large demonstrations in January and February, following news of a secret right-wing meeting in Potsdam. The meeting focused on so-called remigration. The recent scandals involving the AfD’s main candidates for the EU, Maximilian Krah and Petr Bystron, who are allegedly linked to Russia and in Krah’s case also to China, have also had negative repercussions.
Kühnert: “It’s a tough defeat for us”
After the first exit polls, the German Social Democrats (SPD) are preparing for a “very bitter result” in the European elections. This was stated by the general secretary of the SPD, Kevin Kühnert, speaking to the German public broadcaster Ard. “It’s a tough defeat for us,” emphasized Kühnert.
According to German media reports, CDU leader Friedrich Merz has called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to support the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) in her candidacy for a second term.
