German election: Conservatives win election, AfD second - exit polls

According to exit surveys conducted by German broadcaster ZDF, the Christian Democratic Union and its allied Christian Social Union secured the largest share of votes in the German federal election on Sunday, per CNBC. 

This puts the party's leading candidate, Friedrich Merz, in a great position to take over Olaf Scholz as chancellor of Europe's largest economy.

The CDU-CSU won 28.5% of the vote, followed by the far-right AfD with 20% and Scholz's Social Democratic Party with 16.5%, according to ZDF exit polls.  

Market reaction

At the time of writing, EUR/USD is trading 0.10% higher on the day at 1.0470.