Hours after Friedrich Merz's conservatives won Germany's national election, he sent the outgoing Social Democrat government a memorandum dictating how to cooperate during the transition period before he took power.

The Christian Democratic Union’s victory comes despite a strong showing by the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Such talks often drag on for weeks if not months in Germany, but Merz is in a hurry to reach a deal with Europe's biggest economy facing economic malaise and an upheaval in relations with the U.S.