The Left (Die Linke) and the far-right AfD party scored big in Germany's federal election on Sunday. But their success has less to do with the fact that they offer more or less radical alternatives to other parties than in their style of political discourse — and more moderate parties would be wise to learn a thing or two from this.

Exit polls show the center-right Christian Democratic Union party leading, with the AfD party heading towards the strongest showing of the far-right since World War II.

The shooting star of the 2025 election was undoubtedly the Left Party. shouted Left Party co-leader Jan van Aken to the cheering crowd at the election party in Berlin as the projected election results rolled in.

Young German voters turned mostly to parties on the far left and the far right in Sunday's election, according to an initial analysis by two well-known German polling groups. The Left, a hard-left party,

German The Left (Die Linke) party leader Heidi Reichinnek speaks during a session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, after Christian Democratic Party (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz succeeded in getting a motion passed in parliament that calls for a migration crackdown,

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the second largest party in the Bundestag, winning 20.8 percent of the vote in the federal elections.

The AfD finished in second place with just under 21 per cent in Sunday's vote, behind only the conservative CDU-CSU which came first on 28.6 per cent.