Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Germany’s governing parties were heading for very weak results and the far-right Alternative for Germany made gains in Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament
Germany’s governing parties were heading for very weak results and the far-right Alternative for Germany made gains in Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament
Germany’s governing parties were heading for very weak results and the far-right Alternative for Germany made gains in Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cast their ballots for the European elections on Sunday.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cast their ballots for the European elections on Sunday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cast her ballot on the final day of the EU election on Sunday. Von der Leyen voted in the village of Beinhorn in her home country of Germany.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cast her ballot on the final day of the EU election on Sunday. Von der Leyen voted in the village of Beinhorn in her home country of Germany.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz waits in line to cast his vote for the European Parliament elections, in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Tens of millions across the European Union were voting in EU parliamentary elections on Sunday in a massive exercise of democracy that is expected to shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz waits in line to cast his vote for the European Parliament elections, in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Tens of millions across the European Union were voting in EU parliamentary elections on Sunday in a massive exercise of democracy that is expected to shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel, center, and Tino Chrupalla, center right, both AfD federal chairmen, cheer at the AfD party headquarters during the forecast for the European election in Berlin Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel, center, and Tino Chrupalla, center right, both AfD federal chairmen, cheer at the AfD party headquarters during the forecast for the European election in Berlin Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP)
Friedrich Merz, Federal Chairman of the CDU, speaks after the first projections at a press conference in the Konrad Adenauer House, in Berlin, Sunday June 9, 2024. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)
Friedrich Merz, Federal Chairman of the CDU, speaks after the first projections at a press conference in the Konrad Adenauer House, in Berlin, Sunday June 9, 2024. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP)
A woman casts her ballot for the European elections in a polling station in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A woman casts her ballot for the European elections in a polling station in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Katharina Moser, dressed in traditional Black Forest attire. with red Bollenhut hat, casts her ballot for the European Parliament elections at the polling stationm in Gutach im Breisgau, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Silas Stein/dpa via AP)
Katharina Moser, dressed in traditional Black Forest attire. with red Bollenhut hat, casts her ballot for the European Parliament elections at the polling stationm in Gutach im Breisgau, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Silas Stein/dpa via AP)
A woman in a European hoodie throws her ballot paper into the ballot box for the European elections at a polling station in Frankfurt, Germany Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)
A woman in a European hoodie throws her ballot paper into the ballot box for the European elections at a polling station in Frankfurt, Germany Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)
Ursula von der Leyen, left, President of the European Commission, walks to a ballot box outside a polling station in the Hanover region with her husband Heiko to cast her vote in the European Parliament elections, in Burgdorf, Germany on Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)
Ursula von der Leyen, left, President of the European Commission, walks to a ballot box outside a polling station in the Hanover region with her husband Heiko to cast her vote in the European Parliament elections, in Burgdorf, Germany on Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz casts his ballot for the European Parliament elections, in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Tens of millions across the European Union were voting in EU parliamentary elections on Sunday in a massive exercise of democracy that is expected to shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz casts his ballot for the European Parliament elections, in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Tens of millions across the European Union were voting in EU parliamentary elections on Sunday in a massive exercise of democracy that is expected to shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel, center, and Tino Chrupalla, center right, both AfD federal chairmen, cheer at the AfD party headquarters during the forecast for the European election in Berlin Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP)
Alice Weidel, center, and Tino Chrupalla, center right, both AfD federal chairmen, cheer at the AfD party headquarters during the forecast for the European election in Berlin Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP)
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s unpopular governing parties sank to feeble results and the far-right Alternative for Germany made gains in Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament, while the mainstream conservative opposition was the country’s strongest political force by a distance, projections showed.
Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and partial counting, showed support for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats at around 14%, below the 15.8% they managed in 2019 — already their worst post-World War II result in a nationwide vote. After a campaign in which Scholz played a prominent role, the Social Democrats fell more than 10 points short of their showing in Germany’s last national election in 2021.
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was seen winning just over 16% of the vote for a probable second-place finish. That’s better than its showing of 11% in 2019 but still some way short of its poll ratings at the beginning of the year. The party has seen a string of setbacks since then, including scandals surrounding its two lead candidates for the European Parliament.
The projections showed the environmentalist Greens, the second-biggest party in Scholz’s coalition, falling from a peak of 20.5% five years ago to around 12%. Support for the pro-business Free Democrats, the third party in the quarrelsome government, was estimated at 5%. Both were significantly below their 2021 German election showings.
The center-right Union bloc, now the main opposition force, was projected to win around 30%. That’s underwhelming by historical standards but in line with its 2019 result and better than its showing in the last national election. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, the dominant party in the two-party bloc, and said she was impressed by its showing.
Kevin Kühnert, the Social Democrats’ general secretary, said that “this is a hard defeat for us today.” He vowed that “we will come back, we will fight our way out of this.”
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told ARD that “the election campaign was certainly a bit bumpy, but we are used to headwind and so it just makes us stronger.” He argued that “constant media fire” against his party had no effect.
Pointing to three state elections in September in eastern regions where the party is strong, he said that “we want to win them and we will.” He and co-leader Alice Weidel skirted questions about the party’s lead candidates and their future.
Scholz’s coalition government set out to modernize Germany but has gained a reputation for constant discord as the economy, Europe’s biggest, struggles to generate growth.
Even as they campaigned, the coalition partners argued about how to put together a 2025 budget while adhering to Germany’s tight self-imposed rules on running up debt.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz celebrated the Union’s performance and called the projected results “a disaster” for the governing coalition, noting that most voters were influenced above all by domestic political considerations.
“It is in particular a serious defeat for the chancellor, who was on posters across the country” along with his party’s lead candidate for the European Parliament, Merz said. He described it as “the last warning” from voters before Germany’s next national election, expected in the fall of 2025.
The projections showed the new BSW party taking about 6% of the vote. The BSW was founded by prominent opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht and combines left-wing economic policy with a restrictive approach to migration and opposition to weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Germany has 96 of the 720 seats in the new European Parliament, the biggest number for a single country.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
