Merkel's conservatives emerge as biggest winner in European Parliament vote

BERLIN: Germany's conservatives led by Chancellor Angela Merkel have emerged as the biggest winner in the country's vote to the European Parliament (EP), exit polls showed on Sunday.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which are part of the center-right European People's Party (EPP) in the EP, won the largest share of vote with 36.1 percent, according to an exit poll by Germany's ARD public television shortly after polling stations closed at 6 p.m. local time.