Winner Friedrich Merz's conservatives need at least one coalition partner to govern and face potentially months of difficult negotiations before a stable government is likely to emerge.

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.