Electoral map shows divisions in Germany

The Bundestag elections have two votes per person. This decides who sits in the German parliament, which has been reduced from 733 to 630.

One vote is cast to elect members of the Bundestag directly in 299 constituencies. The second is to choose a political party in one of the 16 states where you live.

Any party that wins 5% of the second-place vote is allowed into the Bundestag and then uses their state lists to elect their deputies.

A voting map published by the BBC shows how Germany is divided in two in terms of party support.

According to the map, the western, northern and southern parts voted mainly for Friedrich Merz's conservatives, while the eastern part voted mainly for the Alternative for Germany (AfD). 

The victory of the conservatives in the German elections has marked the continuation of the shift to the right across Europe.

Spain is now the only major European Union member state to be led by the left, although smaller Denmark also elected a left-wing government last year.

Many voters have turned against the left as a reaction to the large-scale migration to Europe of the last decade, trusting the conservatives to limit immigration.

Friedrich Merz's conservatives won 208 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, while the far-right AfD won 152.

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The three parties in the former governing coalition have lost seats, with the Social Democrats falling to 120 seats and the Greens to 85.

The pro-business Free Democrats, who triggered a snap election by withdrawing from the coalition, failed to reach the 5% of votes needed to win seats.