{"id":886806,"date":"2026-09-07T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/886806\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:18:09","slug":"germanys-merz-refuses-to-work-with-afd-after-far-right-partys-landslide-victory-in-state-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/886806\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Merz refuses to work with AfD after far-right party\u2019s landslide victory in state election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

German Chancellor and leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz and Saxony-Anhalt’s State Premier Sven Schulze arrive to a press conference after the party’s leadership meeting in Berlin on Sept. 7, one day after regional elections in the eastern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt.RALF HIRSCHBERGER\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Chancellor Friedrich Merz ruled out working with the Alternative for Germany on Monday after the far-right party surged into first place in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, but he conceded the result had shaken his party \u201cto its very foundations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AfD is appealing to lawmakers from Merz\u2019s conservatives to support its bid to rule the eastern state, in what would be the first time a far-right party takes power at state level in postwar Germany. <\/p>\n

The anti-immigrant, pro-Russia AfD won nearly 44 per cent of the vote, an outcome that underlined the deep unpopularity of Merz\u2019s ruling coalition and also triggered alarm among Germany\u2019s neighbours, France and Poland, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

However, the party \u2013 which wants to deport immigrants, halt support for Ukraine and restore ties with Moscow \u2013 fell short of an absolute majority in the state legislature, winning 39 of the 83 seats, and hopes to poach individual conservative lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Far-right AfD win German regional election but fall short of majority<\/a><\/p>\n

The election result could test the long-standing refusal of Germany\u2019s mainstream parties, including Merz\u2019s Christian Democrats (CDU), to work with the AfD, a policy known as the \u201cfirewall.\u201d The AfD says this is undemocratic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shakes our party to its very foundations,\u201d Merz said, according to the Bild newspaper. \u201cWe are all deeply shocked,\u201d he added later at a news conference, describing the result as his party\u2019s worst election result in decades.<\/p>\n

While sounding chastened, and vowing to try harder to connect with voters, Merz batted away suggestions that he might resign, saying he would broadly stick with his government\u2019s reform agenda.<\/p>\n

Merz, whose own approval ratings have sunk to record lows, faces more state elections in the coming weeks and into next year, though he hopes his mix of reforms and higher spending in some areas will revive growth in Europe\u2019s largest economy.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that the AfD win was cheered in Moscow, Merz characterized the current political moment as a fight for the survival of Western values. He also defended a decision, taken last year, to borrow hundreds of billions of euros to spend on defence, saying the unity of the NATO alliance was at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving up is not an option for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The AfD\u2019s national co-leader Tino Chrupalla appealed to CDU lawmakers to make a \u201ccentre-right conservative majority\u201d in Saxony-Anhalt possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartisan games really ought to be a thing of the past,\u201d he told German radio, referring to the firewall policy.<\/p>\n

BSW party a potential partner<\/p>\n

The only German party that has signalled readiness to work with the AfD is the populist left-wing BSW.<\/p>\n

The BSW shares the AfD\u2019s hostility towards mass immigration, which it says undermines local workers\u2019 rights, and also advocates for ending Germany\u2019s support for Ukraine and restoring ties with Moscow. <\/p>\n

Both parties characterize sanctions on Russia as needlessly self-sabotaging, denying German businesses access to Russia\u2019s vast cheap energy resources on which Germany\u2019s export-driven economy was able to thrive for decades. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeace in Europe\u201d was the second biggest factor driving which way people voted in Saxony-Anhalt, according to numbers from the ARD broadcaster. But Merz told reporters that the AfD\u2019s success was no reason to change course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not deviate by even a millimetre from my fundamental conviction that we must defend our freedom, especially now, against Russia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we stop supporting Ukraine, the situation will not improve by tomorrow, it will only get worse. The Russian leadership aims to destabilize the system of values underpinning what we once called \u2019the West\u2019, a system of values that is non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the campaign, the AfD tapped into growing disillusionment with established parties, which it characterizes as tired and out of touch, offering instead a range of hard line policies, a promise of cleaner and safer streets and a revival of national pride.<\/p>\n

For some, there is also a nostalgia for life in the former communist-run East Germany.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Top candidate Ulrich Siegmund speaks at an election party of the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) after the Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, Sunday.Matthias Schrader\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u2018Very, very worrying signal\u2019<\/p>\n

According to a breakdown of voters, the AfD was particularly popular among men, with 50 per cent voting for the party compared to 39 per cent of women. AfD voters also tended to be less economically secure and less educated.<\/p>\n

Saxony-Anhalt is a relatively small state, and one of the poorest in Germany\u2019s former communist east, but Alice Weidel, the AfD\u2019s other national co-leader, hailed Sunday\u2019s result as a milestone and said her party aimed to win at least 40 per cent in the next national election, due in 2029.<\/p>\n

The AfD has been classified as right-wing extremist by the local office of Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence service, but it dismisses accusations of extremism as scaremongering and an insult to the party\u2019s millions of supporters. <\/p>\n

While far-right leaders in Europe welcomed the result as a mandate for change, and U.S. billionaire Elon Musk cheered on the AfD from the sidelines, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio it \u201csends out a very, very worrying signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that we face a major challenge in the face of a populist wave which is spreading around the world today and which we must resist,\u201d said Lescure, whose own country holds national elections next year that could see far-right veteran Marine Le Pen become president of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: German Chancellor and leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,1008,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-886806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pleasemod","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}