*

Opposition conservatives win German election

*

Conservative chief Friedrich Merz hits out at US

*

AfD scores historic result but far-right party to be

shunned

*

Coalition talks could last months, leaving vacuum at heart

of EU

*

Trump: Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda

(Recasts with Merz comments on U.S.)

By Sarah Marsh and Matthias Williams

BERLIN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Friedrich Merz, set to become

Germany's next chancellor after his opposition conservatives won

the national election on Sunday, vowed to help give Europe "real

independence" from the U.S. as he prepared to cobble together a

government.

Merz, 69, faces complex and lengthy coalition negotiations

after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to a

historic second place in a fractured vote after the collapse of

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unloved three-way alliance.

Mainstream parties rule out working with the AfD which

enjoyed the endorsement of prominent U.S. figures including Elon

Musk, the tech billionaire and ally of President Donald Trump.

Merz, who has no previous experience in office, is set to

become chancellor with Europe's largest economy ailing, its

society split over migration and its security caught between a

confrontational U.S. and an assertive Russia and China.

Merz took aim at the U.S. in blunt remarks after his

victory, criticising the "ultimately outrageous" comments

flowing from Washington during the campaign, comparing them to

hostile interventions from Russia.

"So we are under such massive pressure from two sides that

my absolute priority now is to achieve unity in Europe. It is

possible to create unity in Europe," he told a roundtable with

other leaders.

Merz's broadside against the U.S. came despite President

Donald Trump welcoming the election outcome.

"Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the

no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration,

that has prevailed for so many years," Trump wrote on Truth

Social.

Hitherto seen as an atlanticist, Merz said Trump had shown

his administration to be "largely indifferent to the fate of

Europe".

Merz's "absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as

quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence

from the USA step by step," he added.

He even ventured to ask whether the next summit of the North

Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which has underpinned Europe's

security for decades, would still see "NATO in its current

form".

Following a campaign roiled by violent attacks for which

people of migrant background were arrested, the conservative

CDU/CSU bloc won 28.5% of the vote, followed by the AfD with

20.5%, said a projection published late on Sunday by ZDF

broadcaster.

The AfD, which looks set to double its score from the

previous vote, saw Sunday's result as only a beginning.

"Our hand remains outstretched to form a government," leader

Alice Weidel told supporters, adding "next time we'll come

first."

MERZ'S JUGGLING ACT

Merz is heading into coalition talks without a strong

negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc,

it scored its second worst post-war result.

It remains uncertain whether Merz will need one or two

partners to form a majority, with the fate of smaller parties

unclear in a way that could jumble parliamentary arithmetic.

Another three-way coalition would likely be much more

unwieldy, hampering Germany's ability to show clear leadership.

Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their

worst result since World War Two, with 16.5% of the vote share,

and Scholz conceding a "bitter" result, according to the ZDF

projection, while the Greens were on 11.8%.

Strong support particularly from younger voters pushed the

far-left Die Linke party to 8.7% of the vote.

The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra

Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5% threshold

to enter parliament.

"A three-party coalition runs the risk of more muddling

through and more stagnation unless all parties involved realise

that this is the last chance to bring change and to prevent the

AfD from getting stronger," said Carsten Brzeski, global head of

macro at banking group ING.

"As long as the new government does not bring

significant change, foreign investments will also be held back,

weakening Germany's economic outlook."

Voter turnout at 83% was the highest since before

reunification in 1990, according to exit polls. Male voters

tended more towards the right, while female voters showed

stronger support for leftist parties.

CARETAKER SCHOLZ

A brash economic liberal who has shifted the conservatives

to the right, Merz is considered the antithesis of former

conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led Germany for 16

years.

Merz conditionally supports equipping Ukraine with

longer-range Taurus missiles, a step Scholz's government shied

away from, and sees Europe as firmly anchored in NATO.

Sunday's election came after the collapse last November of

Scholz's coalition of his SPD, the Greens and pro-market FDP in

a row over budget spending.

Lengthy coalition talks could leave Scholz in a caretaker

role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive the

German economy after two consecutive years of contraction and as

companies struggle against global rivals.

A delay would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart

of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges such as

Trump threatening a trade war and attempting to fast-track a

ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.