Europe must seek to “achieve independence” from the United States, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after his opposition conservatives won elections on Sunday, in a vote that also saw surging support for the far-right.

Germany’s conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won the elections, securing over 28% of the vote, while the far-right AfD gained over 20%. Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD suffered a historic low with 16%.

Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc won 28.6% of the votes, followed by 20.8% for the far-right Alternative for Germany, according to the provisional vote count by the Federal Returning Officer. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats finished third with 16.4%, the party’s worst result since World War II.