Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) declared victory Sunday as exit polls and early results suggest the party garnered the biggest vote share in the country’s elections—and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to nab a historic number of votes after billionaire Elon Musk ’s endorsement.

The Christian Democratic Union party is projected to win the election, but the far-right Alternative for Germany is set for its best result since World War II.

Germans go to the polls Sunday. Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats are likely to lose to the conservative CDU party, as the right-wing Alternative for Germany party is likely to make gains.

Musk won AfD a massive new audience, and JD Vance added support. That brought the party outsized attention, but the impact in Germany was limited, data shows.

The leading candidate, Friedrich Merz, a conservative who has adopted many of the AfD’s hard-line positions on immigration, used his closing statement of the debate to promise his voters that he would never allow the AfD into his government. Under him, he said, the firewall would hold.

United States of America tech billionaire, Elon Musk has asked citizens of Germany to vote for Alternative for Germany, AfD, party, in the Sunday, February 23, 2025 general election. Musk, who became US president Donald Trump’s adviser,