Polls open in high-stakes German election

German voters went to polls Sunday to decide the composition of the next Bundestag, the country's lower house of parliament.

The election was scheduled for September this year, but a snap election was triggered by the collapse of the current ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party last year.

The latest polls show that the sister parties of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) are taking the lead.

According to Friday's survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, support for CDU and CSU stood at 29 percent, compared with 21 percent for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and 15 percent for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD.

It takes a majority of the 630 seats in the Bundestag to form a stable federal government.

The Forsa survey also showed that 22 percent of respondents were still unsure of their choice shortly before the election.

Polling stations opened at 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT) and will closes at 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when ballot counting will start and exit polls will be released.

A total of 4,506 candidates stand for the election in 299 constituencies, with at least 59.2 million people eligible to vote, official figures show.

High-stakes election

Germans were voting in a national election that is expected to restore power to Friedrich Merz's conservatives while the far-right AfD party is forecast to achieve its best result yet in Europe's ailing economic powerhouse.

Merz's CDU/CSU bloc has consistently led polls but is unlikely to win a majority given Germany's fragmented political landscape, forcing it to sound out coalition partners.

Those negotiations are expected to be tricky after a campaign that exposed sharp divisions over migration and how to deal with the AfD in a country where far-right politics carries a particularly strong stigma because of its Nazi past.

That could leave Scholz in a caretaker role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive Europe's largest economy after two consecutive years of contraction, as companies struggle against global rivals.

It would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges, including U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of a trade war and attempts to fast-track a ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.

Germany, which has an export-oriented economy and has long relied on the U.S. for its security, is particularly vulnerable.

Germans are more pessimistic about their living standards now than at any time since the financial crisis in 2008. The percentage who say their situation is improving dropped sharply from 42 percent in 2023 to 27 percent last year, according to pollster Gallup, Inc.

Attitudes towards migration have also hardened in a profound shift in German public sentiment since its "Refugees Welcome" culture during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis.

Read more:

Germans set to go to the polls with AfD helping shape agenda

Migration and integration on voters' minds in Germany

(With input from agencies)