AKIPRESS.COM - President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Christian Democratic Union's victory in country's Bundestag elections.

In his message, Nazarbayev said the relations between Kazakhstan and Germany rose to a high level for 25 years. "I want to highlight your contrivution to successful implementation of joint projects that influenced the rapprochement of our countries," Nazarbayev said.

Federal elections were held in Germany on September 24 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. The new Bundestag will have to elect a Chancellor with an absolute majority of its members, who will in turn form a new government.

The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), led by Angela Merkel, had maintained a double-digit lead over the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in opinion polling since the 2013 election, aside from a period in early 2017 following the selection of Martin Schulz as SPD leader, according to DW.

The first exit poll after the polls closed at 6 p.m. showed the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) to have 33% of the vote, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to have achieved its worst result ever with just 20% of the vote, and Alternative for Germany (AfD)—who were previously unrepresented in the Bundestag—have taken 13% of the vote.