The AfD’s dramatic victory in Saxony-Anhalt continues to shake Germany. After the conservative anti-immigration party captured nearly 44% of the vote, Chancellor Friedrich Merz confronted party leader Alice Weidel in the Bundestag today—choosing to launch an especially sharp attack against her.
2+Merz called the AfD a “destructive force” and argued that the party’s “remigration” policy could harm millions of people. Noting that a significant portion of Germany’s skilled workers have immigration backgrounds, the chancellor claimed that implementing the party’s policy would be “nothing less than ethnic cleansing in the skilled professions based on skin color and origin.”
But the sharp confrontation comes after results the German political establishment can hardly ignore. The AfD swept nearly 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, while Merz’s centrist party managed just 17.2%. The party fell three seats short of an outright majority, but its performance illustrates the depth of political change in eastern Germany—and the intensity of discontent among a large segment of the public.
2+At the heart of the dispute stands immigration once again. The AfD promised a “deportation and remigration offensive” against migrants residing illegally in the country, while Weidel argued in parliament that mass immigration has brought violence and undermined personal security. Merz responded that the government recognizes the need to deport those not entitled to remain in the country, but stressed the importance of distinguishing them from immigrants who integrate into Germany’s economy and society.
The debate turned especially heated, with AfD members repeatedly interrupting the chancellor until Bundestag President Julia Klöckner threatened to remove parliamentarians from the chamber. “We’re not at a soccer match,” she scolded them.
2+But beyond the war of words, the election results pose a broader political question for Merz: Is attacking the AfD enough when nearly half the voters in a state chose it? The chancellor himself acknowledged the result was “seismic,” but during the debate insisted the AfD won’t achieve a majority in Germany and that it “was and will remain a destructive force.”
Weidel, for her part, claimed Merz’s party was “crushed” in the election and that his coalition with the Social Democrats has failed. Now the question in Saxony-Anhalt is whether the AfD can translate its achievement into power: it doesn’t hold an independent majority, and Germany’s mainstream parties continue to maintain a “firewall” preventing cooperation with it.
President Donald Trump also congratulated the AfD and linked it to Germany’s immigration policy. According to him, “the populist party in Germany had a big night,” as he criticized the country’s immigration laws and regulations.