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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Politics
Zaheena Rasheed

Merz’s CDU wins election in key German state, as support for AfD surges

AFD CDU Friedrich Merz Germany Alice Weidel Tino Chrupalla SPD
Alice Weidel, coleader of the Alternative for Germany, speaks during the election party at the AfD headquarters in Berlin, Germany, on February 23, 2025 [Soeren Stache/DPA via AP]

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative party has won local elections in the country’s most populous state, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) nearly tripled its share of the vote from five years ago.

Merz’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won about 33.3 percent of the vote in his home state of North Rhine-Westphalia, preliminary results showed on Monday.

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