Markus Soeder, Bavaria's premier and CSU leader, declared collaboration with the Greens implausible. As projections favor his conservative CDU/CSU coalition in the general election, Soeder reaffirms his stance against coalition with the Greens due to immigration policy differences.

As Germany's conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) continue to hold exploratory talks about forming a coalition government, the parties were expected to hold scaled-back traditional political mud-slinging events on Ash Wednesday.

In response to the new international security situation, the premier of the southern German state of Bavaria, Markus Söder, is calling for a massive upgrade of the German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr.

The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), which is in alliance with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), emerged as the strongest party in Bavaria in Germany's national elections, reversing its long downward trend.

Negotiators from German election winner Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats have started exploratory talks on a possible coalition government.

Friedrich Merz's CDU won Germany's elections with 28.6 percent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) recorded big gains.

Germans woke up to a drastically changed political landscape on Monday, after results from the country's parliamentary elections prepared the ground for a major swing to the right. The conservative CDU/CSU bloc secured a clear victory with 28.