German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted to feeling shocked today, after the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) soundly defeated his own center-right party in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He went on to characterize the loss as his party’s worst in decades. According to Reuters, the Chancellor immediately ruled out any cooperation with the AfD, even as the continent still processes the surprising results.
The Daily Mirror reported that the AfD secured nearly 44% of the vote in the state, leaving Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) trailing significantly with only 17.2%. This outcome puts a hard-right party within reach of power at the state level for the first time in postwar Germany. Since AfD fell short of an absolute majority, winning 39 of the 83 seats in the legislature, the party is actively attempting to persuade individual conservative lawmakers to support their bid for power.
