- 'No fireworks' -

Germany's political crisis was sparked by feuding in Scholz's three-way alliance, which broke apart on November 6, the day Trump was re-elected.

Woll said "Germany has chosen the conservative turn, but forming a government could be difficult" after the CDU/CSU fell almost two points short of their goal of 30 percent.

CDU lawmaker Wolfgang Bosbach said his party "can be satisfied, but not much more than that" labelling the result "no reason for fireworks".

As the vote count continued through the night, the Greens stood at 11.6 percent and the small far-left Linke at eight percent.

Merz dodged a bullet after the "left-wing conservative" Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) appeared to have missed by a sliver the five percent cut-off mark for entry into the Bundestag.

Fewer parties make it easier to gain a majority, and having the BSW in parliament would have forced him into a bumpy three-party coalition like the one Scholz led.

"Germany has learned the hard way over the last three years that such coalitions are anything but stable and severely limit the government's ability to act," said Woll.

The liberal FDP, which sparked Scholz's government collapse, also narrowly missed the five-percent hurdle and crashed out of the Bundestag.

Whatever happens, Merz and all other parties have vowed to reject the AfD's overtures and keep them out of power, behind a "firewall" of non-cooperation.

As he is now likely headed for a left-right "grand coalition" of the two big-tent parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD, Merz has said he wants to have a government by mid-April.

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