Germany’s Merz under pressure from far-right election triumph

BERLIN

Ulrich Siegmund, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s main candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, gestures as he addresses supporters at the AfD's election party following Saxony-Anhalt's state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany on September 6, 2026. Germany's far-right AfD won a landslide victory in a key regional election on September 6 in the ex-communist east, according to exit polls, but it remain unclear whether it can win an absolute majority to govern. (AFP Photo)

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), emboldened by a state election triumph, charged on Sept. 7 that center-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz had become “a major burden” for the country.

“No chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a major burden on Germany’s prosperous development,” said party co-leader Alice Weidel, after her party won Saxony-Anhalt state elections in a landslide.

Speaking at a Berlin press conference, she confidently predicted that her AfD party would beat Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc in 2029 national elections.

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is labeled a “right-wing extremist” group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, and its victory there has sparked alarm among mainstream parties, minority groups and many foreign-born residents.

Weidel said “the election in Saxony-Anhalt has shown that people expect a change in politics.”

“The people in this country do not want things to continue as they are,” she said, demanding an end to “illegal migration, open borders, skyrocketing rates of crime committed by foreign nationals, and a refusal to carry out deportations.”

Weidel also slammed Germany’s “disastrous energy policy” and “rampant deindustrialization that is breaking Germany’s backbone.”

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla, meanwhile, criticized German support for Ukraine in its fight to resist the Russian invasion.

“People are simply fed up; they see us transferring billions of our tax dollars to Ukraine, effectively shipping tax revenue abroad instead of using it for our own population,” he said.

The AfD scored a landslide victory in the vote in the ex-communist eastern state with 44 percent of the vote, yet it fell three seats short of an absolute majority.

Ulrich Siegmund, the top candidate, stressed on Sept. 7 that he wants a governing majority to become state premier and reached out to other parties or “individual MPs who want to join us in tackling this historic task.”

“It is a very clear government mandate,” he said of the poll result. “It could hardly be clearer.” All major parties have agreed on a “firewall” of non-cooperation with the AfD, which has long condemned the concept as undemocratic.

The AfD may hope to win the support of the small pro-Russian BSW party, a leftist group that is tough on immigration, and which was expected to just scrape into parliament with 5 percent.

Weidel said that “naturally, a government scenario involving the BSW is very interesting for us.”

A first-ever AfD state government would be a shock for many in Germany, which has been at pains to atone for its dark history of World War II and the Holocaust and so far kept extremist parties at bay.

“I am personally appalled by this election result,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews.

Siegmund’s campaign promises have been radical. He wants to target irregular migrants with a “remigration and deportation offensive” from day one.

The party’s “anti-woke” agenda also includes vows to replace LGBT pride rainbow flags at public schools with the German standard, and to lessen the emphasis on the Third Reich in history teaching.

The German Economic Institute has warned the AfD’s immigration policy would be “ruinous” for Saxony-Anhalt, which is highly reliant on foreign-born workers.