Over the weekend, German voters signaled their desire for change.

Germany elected a new government headed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a center-right party, sweeping out the center-left Social Democrats. The results put the CDU in a position to lead the formation of a new governing coalition in the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Another headline from the election? The strong performance of Germany’s far-right party, the Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD. AfD had shown surprising support in preelection polls, and grabbed a lot of attention in part thanks to Elon Musk’s full-throated backing.

It’s the best showing in AfD’s history — but the party remains quite controversial in Germany. The new chancellor, the Christian Democrats’ Friedrich Merz, has already said his party would not form a coalition with AfD. Its growth over the last few years (part of a global resurgence of far-right parties) has raised alarms among Germany’s mainstream parties, which see AfD as an extremist movement.

There was also another surprise in this week’s results: the unexpectedly good showing of the leftist Die Linke party. Weeks before the election, there were signs the party would fall short of the 5 percent cutoff for earning seats in the Bundestag; this weekend, Die Linke won 9 percent of the vote.

To make sense of it all, Today, Explained’s Noel King spoke with Nina Haase, chief political correspondent for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. King and Haase discussed the implications of the CDU’s triumph, how to think about the AfD’s and Die Linke’s performance, and where German politics goes from here.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s........

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