Europe must seek to “achieve independence” from the United States, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after his opposition conservatives won elections on Sunday, in a vote that also saw surging support for the far-right.

The Christian Democratic Union and its allied Christian Social Union secured the largest share of votes in the German federal election, exit polls show.

Friedrich Merz will now begin coalition talks with the SPD or the Greens but not with the AfD, far-right party which came second