'I fear for what comes next'

The conservative Friedrich Merz looks likely to be the next German chancellor after his CDU/CSU alliance came top in last weekend's election-but voters are already questioning for how much longer another weak coalition can hold off the country's surging far-right

- Ashifa Kassam and Deborah Cole BERLIN

For more than 150 years, the symbolism of the Siegessäule, or Victory Column, in Berlin’s Tiergarten, has shifted along side German identity: from emblem of the empire to strategic relocation by the Nazis and, fi nally, its adoption as an icon of Berlin’s legendary love parade.

On Sunday, as throngs of people gathered in its shadow, the golden statue bore witness to yet another shift – an election that had yielded an emboldened far right in a result that was unprecedented in Germany’s postwar history.

“I’m devastated,” said David, 32. “And I’m scared and sad.”

Although the conservative CDU/ CSU bloc won the largest share of the vote (2 8.5%), the second force in the parliament was the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which garnered just under 21% of the vote, nearly doubling its result at the last election in 2021.

Polls had long predicted this result, said David, who declined to give his surname. But now the question was what exactly it meant for the millions of Germans who were either racialised, like him, or who are migrants.

He was among the many who had gathered outside the headquarters of the CDU to take in the results of the election. Unlike the party faithful who had fi led into the building earlier, David was not there to celebrate but part of a protest rally organised by an alliance of civil society groups.

“I’m here outside the CDU because it will be them who decide how much they give to the AfD – I’m here to hold them accountable,” he said.

The CDU/CSU leader, Friedrich Merz, began to try to form a ruling coalition this week, a process that could take several weeks.