Far-right surge 'last warning' for German mainstream parties: Merz

Germany's conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said Monday that the surge of the far-right AfD to 20 percent voter support was "the last warning" to the country's mainstream parties.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored its best-ever result in Sunday's election after a campaign marred by a spate of deadly car-ramming and stabbing attacks blamed on migrants.

Merz, of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), has vowed a crackdown on immigration and a "zero tolerance" law and order drive to ease public fears and win back voters drifting to the far-right party.

"This is really the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany to come to joint solutions," Merz said at a Berlin press conference.

Merz pointed to the especially strong gains of the far-right party in the ex-communist east, the AfD's heartland, which in post-election maps was bathed in blue, the AfD's party colour.

He said his conservative party colleagues had warned him that the eastern region was "only a few years ahead of you in the west" and that "if you do not solve the problems, then you will have the same problem".

Merz, now set to start talks to build a coalition government, added that "we must work together to see that we solve the problems in Germany" to "gradually deprive this party of its breeding ground".