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.

Merz declared victory on Sunday afternoon after his Christian Democratic Union party was projected to win approximately 30% of the vote.

The Christian Democratic Union’s victory comes despite a strong showing by the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Provisional results confirm that mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won Germany's national election, while a far-right party surged to become the nation’s second-largest

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The leader of the conservative Christian Democrats celebrated as exit polls indicated they had won Sunday’s election, which had the highest voter turnout in decades.