Germany's conservative election winner Friedrich Merz vowed to get to work Monday on the arduous task of building a new coalition government, warning "the world isn't waiting for us".

Merz has warned against more paralysis in Berlin at a time US President Donald Trump is driving head-spinning change, the German economy is in recession, and society split after a polarising campaign.

Speaking late Sunday, his victory dampened by a far-right surge, Merz said a united Europe must build up its own defences as he had "no illusions at all about what is coming out of America".

With over 28 percent of the vote, his CDU/CSU bloc handily defeated Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, as the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated a record of over 20 percent.

Following a heated campaign -- dominated by the flashpoint issue of immigration after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on migrants -- Merz will now have to reach out to his former campaign-trail SPD foes.

The conservatives will first enter talks without Scholz, who apologised for a "bitter" defeat at 16 percent, while his........

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