Europe must seek to “achieve independence” from the United States, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after his opposition conservatives won elections on Sunday, in a vote that also saw surging support for the far-right.

The far-right AfD and the Left jointly secured the one third of seats needed to block constitutional changes. Both oppose military aid to Ukraine.

Friedrich Merz could have one shot at fending off ascending populists and an increasingly hostile U.S., analysts say.