Germany's hard right AfD has surged to second place in the snap election with the conservative opposition emerging as the largest party overall. 

The exit poll suggests the conservative CDU have topped Sunday's election securing 28.5 per cent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the AfD have taken 20 per cent of ballots cast which is the strongest showing for a far-right party in Germany's post war era.

Friedrich Merz did not even wait for the final results in Germany's election before delivering what could well be a defining verdict on U.S. President Donald Trump, consigning Europe's 80-year alliance with the United States to the past.

The Trump administration does not care about Europe and is aligning with Russia, said Merz, who is on course to become Germany's new leader. The continent, he warned, must urgently strengthen its defenses and potentially even find a replacement for NATO — within months.

The question is not who will be Germany’s next chancellor, but rather which of his rivals he’ll govern with.

So while we’re fairly sure Friedrich Merz’s conservatives will be in charge — the outcome seems almost nailed on according to the polls — that’s just where the story begins, as the design of Germany’s political system means a coalition of parties is almost inevitable.

Since the end of World War II and the Holocaust, there has been a consensus among Germany's main political parties that the far and extreme right must never be allowed in government again. This so-called firewall has also extended to open collaboration with far-right parties in any capacity.

Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned on Tuesday following months of anti-government protests. The demonstrations were sparked by the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 15 people. After submitting his resignation, Vučević expressed hope that his departure would ease tensions and pave the way for renewed dialogue between the government and protesters.

Longtime Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko won a “sham” presidential election on Sunday with 87.6 percent of vote, according to an official exit poll, marking his seventh term as leader of the Eastern European country.

Four opposition candidates appeared on the ballot — but all were loyal to Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for more than 30 years.

During the 2024 elections, political advertisers spent tens of billions of dollars trying to will their preferred candidates into office. The groundwork for this historic spending spree, however, was actually laid exactly 15 years ago.

Croatian President Zoran Milanović has recently been re-elected for a second term. In the second round of the presidential election he faced Dragan Primorac, backed by the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Zoran Milanović, who has been president of Croatia since 2020, is supported by the opposition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The U.S. Justice Department wants a judge to declare that a Pennsylvania city’s method of electing council members citywide instead of by districts has illegally diluted the political power of its growing Hispanic population, arguing in a lawsuit that Hazleton is violating the federal Voting Rights Act.

A complaint filed Tuesday in Scranton federal court claims the “at-large” system “results in Hispanic citizens not having an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice.”

A Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit alleges that Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s city council elections violate federal law because not enough “Hispanic-preferred candidates” are winning – without defining what a Hispanic-preferred candidate is.