KEY POINTSPressure is mounting on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the far-right AfD made substantial gains in the European Union election on Sunday.The AfD became the second strongest party in Germany after clinching 15.9% of the vote, ahead of Scholz’s SPD, which won 13.9%.The result emerged despite a string of scandals for the AfD in recent weeks and months and adds pressure to Scholz’s governing coalition, which is on unsteady ground.Pressure is mounting on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the far-right AfD made substantial gains in the European Union election on Sunday despite a string of scandals.The AfD secured 15.9% of the vote, according to preliminary results, beating Scholz’s SPD (social democrats) and its two coalition partners in the current German government, the Greens and the FDP (free democrats).The SPD lost support from the 2019 election, winning just 13.9% of the latest votes. The Green party’s support weakened sharply from 20.5% in 2019 to 11.9% in 2024, while the FDP only registered a minor decline, securing 5.2% of votes in the latest poll.Incremental gains meanwhile turned Germany’s opposition, the CDU (Christian democrats), into the strongest party, with 23.7% of support.The results deal the latest blow to Scholz’s government, which has faced a string of crises from a struggling economy to budget issues and concerns about the popularity of the far right. At a national level, the AfD was last ahead of the SPD and in second place overall, according to a leading general election poll.