- Election posters, showing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and CDU top candidate Friedrich Merz, stand on a meadow in Nieder-Erlenbach near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck chat during the cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/E

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz waves to applause after giving a speech at a special party convention in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/, File)

Germany faces its second change of leader in less than four years after the head of the center-right opposition won Sunday’s election.

Misleading claims targeting the German chancellor have been spreading online days before German voters head to the polls to elect a new government. View on euronews

Projections show German opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s conservatives have won a lackluster victory in Sunday's national election.

Germany's mainstream conservatives have won the country's national election, while a far-right party surged to become the country's second-largest party.

Friedrich Merz's CDU party emerged as the largest party in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, earning 28.6% of the vote.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A reform of Germany's constitutionally enshrined debt brake, which limits public borrowing, would be discussed by the leaders of the conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in coalition talks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday.