The far-right had its strongest showing since World War II, while the center-left Social Democrats had their worst postwar result.

Friedrich Merz and his party won, Elon Musk didn’t seem to move voters, and more lessons from an early German vote with big implications for Europe.

Friedrich Merz is poised to become Germany’s next chancellor, but his victory may not deliver the stability many voters had hoped for. The 2025 election marks a major turning point for Germany, with a sharp rightward shift and the collapse of the center-left.

Most mornings, my husband Stefan and I have coffee in bed while we look at the news. While I open up Slate, the New York Times, and New York magazine, Stefan, who moved to New York from Berlin a year ago,