Mirroring the far right on immigration backfired for Germany’s political centre | Johannes Hillje

Germany 's next government will be a coalition of the political centre led by the conservative Friedrich Merz .

The SPD achieved its worst result in a national election since the second world war, with 16.4% of the vote.

The far-right AfD achieved its strongest result ever ( 20.8% ) while the Left party ( Die Linke ) is celebrating a comeback but is not even half as strong as the AfD.

Steady growth of the AfD is not a foregone conclusion, says Johannes Hillje .

The new government must do a number of things: abandon its attempt to weaken AfD by speaking like the party.

Instead, it must develop a modern conservative agenda for migration and the economy.

Hillje : 70% of German voters do not want AfD to govern.