Dhaka, Feb. 23 -- Germans vote in a national election on Sunday which is expected to see Friedrich Merz's conservatives regain power and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) score its best ever result as Europe's ailing economic powerhouse lurches rightwards.

Merz's CDU/CSU bloc has consistently led polls but is unlikely to win a majority given Germany's fragmented political landscape, forcing it to sound out coalition partners.

Those negotiations are expected to be tricky after a campaign which exposed sharp divisions over migration and how to deal with the AfD in a country where far-right politics carries a particularly strong stigma due to its Nazi past.

That could leave unpopular Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a caretaker role fo...