BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives claimed victory in European Parliament elections on Sunday, despite strong gains for the centre-left Social Democrats and the rise of a new anti-euro party, exit polls showed.

Germany, the most populous country in the EU, sends 96 members to the 751-seat European Parliament which has demanded a stronger say in who takes over from outgoing European Commission president Jose Manuel Barosso.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU – a team that last September celebrated a landslide win at the national level – between them scored about 36 per cent, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF estimated.

The result – though less triumphant than last year’s German election result of 41.5pc – was seen as another endorsement for Merkel, the only leader of a major EU member country to have weathered the political fallout from the eurozone crisis.

The result pointed at the German electorate’s “extreme satisfaction with the federal government”, said political scientist Jens Walther of Dusseldorf University.

“Compared to other countries, she (Merkel) had a very good result.” The CDU’s top candidate David McAllister said: “We had a goal and we achieved that goal, we are the strongest force in this election, we clearly won.

And Germany clearly voted in a pro-European way. This confirms our good policy for Europe.” But the vote was also celebrated by Merkel’s new partners in a left-right ‘grand coalition’ government, the Social Democrats (SPD), who looked set to score over 27pc, up from 20.8pc at the last such EU vote in 2009.

Since teaming up with Merkel’s party, the SPD has pushed social reforms including a national minimum wage in Germany. It also boasts among its ranks the European candidate for European Commission president, Martin Schulz.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2014