Exit polls suggest lead for Merz’s CDU in key west German state

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives look set to oust the centre-left Social Democratic Party on Sunday in a closely watched state election in which the far right also made big gains, according to exit polls.

Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took around 30 percent of the vote and looks poised to win the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate after 35 years under the SPD, which took 27 percent, according to two public TV networks’ exit polls.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) meanwhile looked set for a record score in western Germany, with around 20 percent, according to the polls from ARD and ZDF television.

Far-right doubles vote share

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel hailed the result – more than double the insurgent anti-immigration party’s score in the state’s last elections – as a “great success”, in a message on X.

The AfD looks set to pose a bigger threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the…