Exit polls show the center-right Christian Democratic Union party leading, with the AfD party heading towards the strongest showing of the far-right since World War II.

Exit poll results suggest vast gains for the far-right AfD party and a sizeable shift in the fortunes of Germany’s two largest parties – the incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) and frontrunners in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Friedrich Merz, a man who has never held a government role, is preparing to take the reins in Germany just as the country faces its biggest economic and diplomatic crises in decades and Europe looks urgently for a new generation of leaders for an era of transatlantic tension.