The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, hailed the party's best-ever national election result Sunday after exit polls gave it 19.5 to 20 percent of the vote.
"We have achieved a historic result," Weidel told cheering supporters at the AfD's election night party in Berlin, adding that the anti-immigration party was now "firmly anchored" in the political landscape and had "never been so strong on a national level".
She told the ARD TV station that "our hand is reaching out" to enter into a coalition government with the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which came first with at least 28.5 percent according to exit polls.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has ruled out any such alliance but caused uproar last month by bringing a motion to parliament that was passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo.
Weidel predicted that if the CDU continued to refuse to work with her party to "implement the will of the people", the AfD would "overtake" them in the next election, expected four years from now.