• Exit polls show opposition conservatives win German election
  

• Conservative chief Friedrich Merz on track to become chancellor
• Far-right AfD scores historic result
• Coalition talks could last months leaving vacuum at heart of EU

BERLIN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Germany’s opposition conservatives won the national election on Sunday, putting leader Friedrich Merz on track to be the next chancellor while the far-right Alternative for Germany came in second on its best ever result, projected results showed.

Following a campaign roiled by a series of violent attacks, and interventions by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc won 28.7% of the vote, followed by the AfD with 19.8%, the projection published by ZDF public broadcaster showed.

“Tonight we will celebrate, and from tomorrow we start working. … The world out there is not waiting for us,” Merz, 69, told supporters.

Merz is heading into what are likely to be lengthy coalition talks without a strong negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc, it scored its second worst post-war result.

It remains unclear whether Merz will need one or two partners to form a majority. A three-way coalition would likely be much more unwieldy, hampering Germany’s ability to show clear leadership.

All of the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their worst result since World War Two, with 16.4% of the vote share, according to the ZDF projection, while the Greens were on 12.3% and the far left Die Linke party on 8.9% of the vote.

The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5% threshold to enter parliament.