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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jörg Lau

Friedrich Merz is now on borrowed time. But that’s not why the AfD’s triumph is seismic

AFD Friedrich Merz Germany CDU Die Zeit Democracy European Union eurozone Holocaust
Person in a crowd holding up a cardboard sign reading: 'No AfD!'
A protest in Berlin on Monday after the AfD’s victory in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. Photograph: Maryam Majd/Reuters

As shock at the scale of the far right’s resounding state-election victory in Germany reverberated on Sunday, not everybody was unhappy.

Seconds after the first exit polls from Saxony-Anhalt were revealed, Donald Trump posted the results on his Truth Social platform, seemingly delighted by the devastation of the centrist-conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the surge of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

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