German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives were left reeling after a heavy defeat in a state election in the former communist east, while the victorious far-right AfD seized the moment to launch a fierce assault on his leadership.
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s national co-leader, celebrated the party’s near-44% landslide in Saxony-Anhalt by declaring that “no chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a major burden on Germany’s prosperous development”.
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Mr Merz met with senior members of his Christian Democrats (CDU), including outgoing state premier Sven Schulze, whose party won just 17%. The result was widely attributed to voter frustration with the governing coalition amid prolonged economic stagnation.
Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s 35-year-old lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, said voters had delivered “a signal to Berlin”. He also mocked the 70-year-old chancellor, describing him as “a very good campaigner” for the AfD.
“It is a very clear government mandate,” Mr Siegmund said. “It could hardly be clearer.”
The AfD’s breakthrough drew congratulations from supporters overseas, including US tech tycoon Elon Musk, who wrote “Gut gemacht!” — or “well done” — on X.
Although the result prompted celebrations among AfD supporters, the possibility of Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II has alarmed rival parties, migrants and minority communities.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the AfD branch in Saxony-Anhalt as a “right-wing extremist” group. Some members of Mr Siegmund’s staff are former members of a neo-Nazi organisation that has since been banned.
“I’m scared,” said a 28-year-old man from Afghanistan who arrived in Germany in 2015 and asked not to be identified.
“I have two children here,” he told AFP in Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt. “What will happen if I have to leave?”
Pressure has grown on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
AfD national co-leader Tino Chrupalla attempted to calm those fears, insisting that “no one needs to be afraid of us”.
Speaking to Deutschlandfunk radio, he said the party was not opposed to people with migrant backgrounds “provided they are integrated, speak German … and contribute to the economy here”.
Ms Weidel adopted a far more confrontational stance at a press conference in Berlin, attacking the Merz government and predicting that the AfD would win power in the 2029 national elections.
“The people in this country do not want things to continue as they are,” she said, calling for an end to “illegal migration, open borders, skyrocketing rates of crime committed by foreign nationals, and a refusal to carry out deportations”.
She also condemned Germany’s “disastrous energy policy” and “rampant deindustrialisation that is breaking Germany’s backbone”.
Mr Merz is facing mounting pressure not only from the far right but from inside his own coalition, which has struggled to revive the stagnant economy and remains divided over social policy, particularly pensions.
Mr Schulze, the visibly downcast CDU state premier, acknowledged on Sunday that national government decisions had complicated his campaign. “We often faced headwinds, and that wasn’t always easy,” he said.
‘Shocking moment’
Daniel Guenther, the CDU premier of Schleswig-Holstein, described the AfD victory as “a shocking moment for our country”.
“For the first time since the end of World War II, the AfD — a party whose state branch is classified as right-wing extremist — is close to securing an absolute majority,” he said.
Founded in 2013 as a eurosceptic protest movement, the AfD later evolved into an Islamophobic and anti-immigration party. It has repeatedly attacked the open-door refugee policy associated with former CDU chancellor Angela Merkel.
Mr Merz has promised to steer the CDU back towards its conservative roots, tightening action against irregular immigration while seeking to revive Germany’s struggling economy.
Oliver Lembcke, a political scientist at Ruhr University Bochum, said the vote showed that “we are witnessing a tectonic shift in the party system.”
Mr Merz entered office promising to contain the AfD, but the party has continued to strengthen despite the CDU’s move towards a more conservative platform.
“This confronts Merz with a question of renewed urgency: what strategy can the CDU use to reverse this trend?”
