Conservative leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded his center-left Social Democrat party’s worst postwar defeat.

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.

The Sunday vote comes amid an economy in the doldrums, big questions over Europe's security posture, and a surging far-right.

Germany’s Social Democrats are under pressure to quickly revamp leadership as a role in a new government beckons, even though Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party slumped to its worst election result since World War II.

Incumbent German chancellor and SPD candidate Olaf Scholz called the outcome of the general election in Germany on Sunday (February 23) “a bitter result” and a defeat for his party. Could these jumping mice change how astronauts exercise?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has admitted his Social Democratic Party (SPD) has suffered a "bitter election result," after preliminary figures showed the party plunging to its worst performance in the country's post-war history.