The center-right Christian Democrats won Sunday with 30.2 percent of the vote, according to German public television projections.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second with 16 percent. The party has capitalized on growing concerns over the country’s large influx of asylum seekers over the past decade.
Meanwhile, Scholz’s Social Democrats won less than 14 percent of the vote, an extraordinary decline for a party that has long been a pillar of Germany’s political landscape. In 2019, the party won just 15.8 percent, which at the time was considered a disastrous result.
The latest loss is a particular embarrassment for Scholz, who despite her poor approval ratings insisted on being the face of the campaign alongside Katarina Barley, the party’s front-runner for the European competition.
“It’s clear we’re not getting any demand from Berlin,” Farley said after Sunday’s vote, calling the result “bittersweet.”
Finger pointing aside, the real question is whether Scholes’ government will survive. German coalitions rarely collapse before the end of a term, but this one is different because it involves three parties instead of the usual two, making it more unstable.
