(27 May 2019) The European election was a less satisfying result for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which celebrated increasing its presence in the European Parliament but fell short of its showing in Germany's 2017 national election.
The party took 11% of the vote, up from 7.1% five years ago.
Party co-leader Joerg Meuthen said on Monday that Brexit and the scandal surrounding the far-right Freedom Party that brought down the government in neighbouring Austria hadn't helped.
Germany's governing parties slid to their worst post-World War II showing in a nationwide election on Sunday amid discontent with their stuttering performance over the past year, while the Greens surging to second place in the European Parliament vote amid increasing concern about climate change.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right Union bloc won 28.9% of the vote and the Social Democrats, their partners in an often-cantankerous "grand coalition" of what have traditionally been Germany's biggest parties, got 15.8%.
Five years ago, they took 35.4% and 27.3%, respectively.
The Greens powered past the Social Democrats into second place, increasing their score to 20.5% - nearly double their 10.7% showing in 2014.
"For us, the Greens are the main opponent, the Greens are the party that ruins Germany, that wants to abolish the combustion engine, that wants to abolish substitutes for coal mining," said AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland.
"In this respect, we must fight against the Greens, that is the main goal, it must also be the main goal in the parliament faction," he added.
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