German far-right AfD takes second place in EU vote

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) shrugged off a string of scandals to take second place in Sunday's EU election, making gains in particular among the young, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats scored their worst result ever, Report informs via Reuters.

The AfD's strong showing comes as Germany's party landscape undergoes its biggest upheaval in decades, with new populist parties vying to take space vacated by the shrinking mainstream parties that have dominated since reunification in 1990.

The AfD also faced nationwide mass anti-extremism protests and rivalry from a new populist party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which was founded in January and is also anti-establishment while advocating a more left-wing economic policy.

The eurosceptic party nonetheless won a record 16.2% of the vote on Sunday, according to an exit poll published by state broadcaster ARD at 1958 CET (1758 GMT). That was 5.2 percentage points more than in the last EU election in 2019 and more than all three parties in Scholz's coalition.