Alternative for Germany's dominant showing in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt election has triggered starkly divided reactions across the continent, exposing the widening fault line between Europe's establishment centre and its emboldened populist right.
AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.
That was far ahead of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which polled 17.2% — losing about half its support — and won 15 seats. The center-left Social Democrats polled 9.3%, the Greens 8.9% and the Left Party 8.6%, winning eight seats apiece.
In Berlin, the result landed as a direct blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who watched the count from CDU headquarters without addressing the public.
General secretary Franziska Hoppermann called it "a very difficult result for us," while state premier Sven Schulze offered only muted congratulations to AfD.
AfD Co-leader Alice Weidel declared "we have received a very clear mandate to govern here."
“We ran on a clear platform of representing the interests of our country, not those of Ukraine or any other country," Weidel told reporters.
"If we receive the mandate to govern at the federal level and assume governmental responsibility, we will cut all unnecessary spending. We will control our borders. We will deport all those required to leave the country and all criminals. We will close the borders.
"I also expect early federal elections, and I expect the current chancellor to be replaced before Christmas."
Lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund also needled Merz, saying "a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many."
Reaction from Warsaw was openly critical. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that "only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD," naming members of Konfederacja and PiS among them.
Elsewhere on the continent, Europe's populist right treated the outcome as validation. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini declared that "another Europe is possible."
Spain's Vox leader Santiago Abascal called the result "a great hope for Germany and for Europe," while Portugal's André Ventura hailed AfD's "historic" victory, linking it to public anger over immigration.
The split reactions underline how a single German regional vote has become a proxy battle for Europe, with mainstream leaders alarmed and nationalist movements energised heading into a string of more German state elections this month.
