Europe Votes: Germany, Heavy losses for the ruling parties in EU election

Both the CDU and SPD in Germany are heading towards a historic low in the votes they won, while the Greens recorded a surge

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her ally the CSU managed only to win over 28% of the vote in Germany, down 7 points from the European Parliament election in 2014, and their worst result in a nationwide election ever. Her junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), however, could gather only 15.6%, an 11-point drop from its 2014 result, putting it only in third place.

The Greens were forecast to be heading for an all-time high score which is double that of their 2014 showing with around 20.9% of the vote.

The far-right AfD was set to improve on their 2014 score of 7.1 percent, with exit polls seeing it coming in at around 10.5 percent.

The turnout for the elections in Germany was about 59 percent. In 2014 it was about 48 percent.

Via DW