German centre-right wins European election, far-right AfD stands second

Berlin, June 10 (IANS/DPA) Germany’s centre-right CDU/CSU alliance has won the European Parliament elections, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) coming in second, the national electoral authority confirmed early Monday after all votes were counted.

The preliminary results were in line with earlier projections.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition suffered at the polls, with his Social Democrats (SPD) and his primary coalition partners domestically, the Greens, both trailing the AfD.The Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), who are in opposition domestically, combined garnered 30 per cent, translating to 29 seats. That is the same seat tally as in the current outgoing European Parliament.The anti-immigrant, eurosceptic AfD made significant gains, receiving 15.9 per cent of the vote, up from 11 per cent in the 2019 European elections, giving them 15 seats.That put the far-right party ahead of Scholz’s SPD, which posted 13.9 per cent (14 seats) in what was the worst showing in a democratic nationwide election in more than a century for the centre-left party, which has historically been one of the dominant parties in German