Polls are open across Germany as the world’s third largest economy chooses a new leader to guide it through an era of febrile immigration debates and souring relations with Washington.

Germany’s political system is set up to exclude extremists. Yet the country is waking up to a new political reality that has lurched to the right with the once outcast Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now firmly established in German politics.

The Christian Democratic Union and its allied Christian Social Union secured the largest share of votes in the German federal election, exit polls show.