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.

Musk has emerged as a fervent supporter of Alternative for Germany, a far-right, anti-immigrant party that is polling in second place ahead of Germany's parliamentary election.

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.

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.

STORY: While Elon Musk is playing a central role in the U.S. government as head of President Donald Trump's task force to slash government spending, the world’s richest person has also weighed in prominently on politics in Germany.

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 AfD’s rise remains a significant concern in German politics, with mainstream parties working to prevent its integration into government. While figures like JD Vance and Elon Musk have expressed strong support for the party,

In the first major European vote since President Trump’s re-election, influence campaigns are targeting Germany from two sides.

Germany voted on Sunday in a snap election described by the BBC as “significant not just for Germany but for the rest of Europe and beyond”. One of the main issues on the voters’ mind is immigration,