Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration PVV party, has congratulated his German counterpart Alice Weidel after the far-right AfD took second place in the weekend German elections.

“Gratuliere Alice Weidel und AfD”, Wilders wrote in a brief message on social media platform X, better known as Twitter, after Weidel’s party won a projected 20.8% of the vote, doubling its share from the 2021 elections.

Unlike the PVV, AfD is set to be frozen out of coalition talks to form a new government. Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right CDU, who is set to become the next chancellor, has explicitly ruled out co-operating with Weidel’s party.

Henri Bontenbal, leader of the Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA), congratulated Merz’s party, which together with the Bavarian CSU won 28.5% of the vote.

“A crucial time for co-operation in Europe on Ukraine, defence, migration and the economy,” Bontenbal wrote on Bluesky. “I look forward to the co-operation between the CDA and CDU in the coming years.”

Merz is expected to enter talks with the centre-left Social Democrats, the party of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz, who finished third with 16.5% of the vote, their worst ever performance.

His hopes of a quick resolution to the talks have been helped by the fact that the liberal FDP and the far-left BSW just missed the 5% threshold to win seats in the German parliament, meaning the two mainstream parties have just enough for a majority.