By 9 p.m. pollster ZDF’s exit survey showed the Greens leading with 31.5% of the vote share. The party had narrowly overtaken Merz’s CDU with 30.5%. The chancellor’s party had been poised for victory earlier in the evening. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) followed on 18%. The result seems to confirm AfD’s position as Germany's main opposition party, even outside its heartland in the former communist eastern states. Merz's coalition partners in Berlin, the centre-left Social Democrats were on course for just 5.5% of the vote, confirming the precipitous drop in support seen in recent years but just scraping past the minimum threshold to enter state parliament.Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch and one of the traditional strongholds of the German car industry, is one of Germany's most prosperous regions.