Exit polls in Germany's national election Sunday show opposition leader Friedrich Merz's conservatives leading, with Alternative for Germany heading for the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II. The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television show Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats on track for their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election, and expected to be in third place. The polls, issued right after the last polling stations closed, put support for Merz's Union bloc at 28.5-29 per cent and Alternative for Germany, or AfD, at 19.5-20 per cent -- roughly double its result from 2021. They put support for Scholz's Social Democrats at 16-16.5 per cent, far lower than in the last election. The environmentalist Greens, their remaining partners in the outgoing government after Scholz's three-party coalition collapsed in November, were on13.5 per cent. Out of three smaller parties, one the hard-left Left Party appeared certa