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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

German conservatives on course for election victory but far-right AfD set for historic gains

AFD Friedrich Merz Olaf Scholz Germany
Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his party's main candidate for Chancellor addresses supporters after the first exit polls - (AFP via Getty Images)

The conservatives are on track for German election victory while Alternative for Germany (AfD) is heading for the strongest showing for a far-right party since the Second World War, exit polls show.

The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television show Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats on track for their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election, and expected to be in third place.

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