Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now on course to win 20.5% of the vote, according to latest projections - but there is no way Friedrich Merz will work with it because of a long-standing political taboo against working with the far right, known as a Brandmauer - a firewall.

Germany's conservatives won Sunday's parliamentary elections, heading off the surging far-right AfD party, which roughly doubled its results from 2021. Despite its strong showing – fuelled by fears

Germany's mainstream political parties lost support while the far-right AfD gained ground in one of the last polls published before the election on Sunday, pointing to likely tricky coalition building that could drag on for months.