The CDU/CSU is the winner of the snap parliamentary elections in Germany and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is the second political force, according to the first exit polls.

The CDU/CSU won 29 percent of the vote, the AfD 19.5 percent, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) 16 percent, which is the party's weakest result in its post-war history.

The Green Party ranks fourth with 13.5 percent and the Left Party with 8.5 percent.

The Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) and the left-wing populist Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, with 4.9 and 4.7 percent respectively, failed to cross the electoral threshold.

84 percent of eligible voters participated in the election, which is the highest figure since German unification.

The CDU/CSU needs at least one coalition partner to form a government and Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader, said this needed to be done as soon as possible.

"The outside world will not wait for us. Now we will talk to each other and we must form a stable government in Germany as soon as possible - a government that can act on the basis of a majority," he said, addressing supporters in Berlin after the exit polls were released.

Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted the defeat, saying that this is a bitter election result for the Social Democratic Party and at the same time an electoral defeat.

"I think we can be proud of the fact that we have worked so closely together in difficult times," he said.

Due to Germany's complex electoral system, smaller parties could play a key role in forming the next coalition government.

Parties must pass the 5% threshold to enter parliament – ​​and the larger parties will be watching closely to see how many smaller parties manage to pass it. This is because, under the electoral system, the more parties enter parliament, the smaller the share of seats the larger parties can win.

In other words, the more parties enter parliament, the greater the likelihood that the largest party will have to seek two, rather than one, coalition partners, and this may affect how difficult it will be to form the next coalition.

It could take Merz many weeks to agree on a coalition government, leading to even greater political paralysis in Berlin during such a tense period.

The political crisis in Germany was triggered when Scholz's coalition collapsed on November 6, the day after Trump was elected president in the US. Scholz's SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP have long argued over finances.

The SPD's historically low poll ratings suggest that Scholz has paid the price for such policies and Germany's poor economic performance at a time when the war in Ukraine has driven up energy prices.