Germany's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) have won the country's federal elections, latest projections show - as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) scores its best-ever result and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party collapses.
Posting on social media after it became clear his party would not meet the 5% vote threshold, he said: "The parliamentary elections brought defeat for the FDP but hopefully a new start for Germany.
Meanwhile Christian Lindner - FDP party leader and former finance minister, whose dismissal by Mr Scholz led to the collapse of the coalition government - also resigned after a bruising night.
Later on Sunday, while appearing on a German broadcaster's post-election panel of party leaders, Mr Merz took aim at Donald Trump and said the US president's administration has shown itself to be "largely indifferent to the fate of Europe".
Alice Weidel, the AfD's co-leader and chancellor nominee, hailed her party's results and said "our hand remains outstretched to form a government" - despite the "firewall" pact.
