Will seek good US ties: Merz; Kyiv must be part of peace negotiations

Germany's conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the surge of the far-right AfD to 20.8% voter support was "the last warning" to the country's mainstream parties.

- Agence France-Presse

BERLIN:

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored its best-ever result in Sunday's election after a campaign marred by a spate of deadly car-ramming and stabbing attacks blamed on migrants.

Merz, of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), has vowed a crackdown on immigration and a "zero tolerance" law and order drive to ease public fears and win back voters drifting to the far-Right party.

"This is really the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany to come to joint solutions," Merz said at a Berlin press conference.

Merz pointed to the especially strong gains of the far-right party in the ex-communist east, the AfD's heartland, which in post-election maps was bathed in blue, the AfD's party colour.