Germany's Merz attacks AfD in stormy debate after far-right election win

ByPaul Kirby Europe digital editor.

Key points

• Merz remarked her party had not won an outright majority in Saxony-Anhalt and it would not achieve one in Germany.
• Merz hit back saying the AfD had harmed German interests by backing Russia, and its "remigration" policy would affect millions.
• Weidel informed MPs that voters had shown that Merz's coalition with the centre left was a total failure and his time was up.
• The AfD's success has been praised by US President Donald Trump.
• The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been labelled as "right-wing extremist" by German domestic intelligence and the party has promised a "deportation and remigration" offensive targeting irregular migrants.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has clashed with AfD leader Alice Weidel in parliament, calling her party a "destructive force" with a migration policy that amounts to "ethnic cleansing" for skilled workers.

While the chancellor's conservatives saw their vote halved, merz was addressing the Bundestag in the aftermath of the anti-immigration party's sweeping victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt where it won almost 44% of the vote.

It is not yet clear whether the party will be able to form a administration or not in Saxony-Anhalt, having fallen three seats short of an outright majority. No far-right party has won power in any of Germany's 16 states since World War Two, and Merz has admitted the "seismic" result has changed Germany.

Notably, the AfD's success has been praised by US President Donald Trump. This person remarked "the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night", linking the victory to "absolutely horrible immigration rules and regulations".

Notably, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been labelled as "right-wing extremist" by German domestic intelligence and the party has promised a "deportation and remigration" offensive targeting irregular migrants.

Repeatedly heckled by AfD MPs, the chancellor informed Weidel that one in six skilled workers had a migration background, and if her party had its way then its policy would amount to "nothing other than an ethnic cleansing in the skilled trades based on skin colour and origin".

While the administration understood some deportations were needed, he stated it create a careful distinction between those who contributed to German prosperity and those without permanent residency.

Disruption by AfD MPs became so loud that at one point Bundestag President Julia Klöckner threatened to start expelling individuals from the chamber: "We are not on a football pitch."

Weidel remarked mass migration had left Germans with daily knife violence and attacks on trains and in stations, but Merz cautioned that the AfD's intends would mean that no single care home, hospital or restaurant could function.

After winning 17.2% of the vote, and she accused his administration with the Social Democrats of driving Germany towards bankruptcy, as leader of the main opposition party in the Bundestag, Weidel opened the session by telling Merz his Christian Democrats had been "pulverised" in Saxony-Anhalt.

"You are and will remain a destructive force, " he remarked, accusing the party of cheating the voters by saying before the election that their candidate for premier, Ulrich Siegmund, would only rule if he won a majority, but hours after the vote deciding to go and find one.

As long as it backs Siegmund to be state premier, the AfD has opened the door to working with another party, perhaps the left-wing populist BSW.

Siegmund's number two in Saxony-Anhalt, has even suggested that Merz's CDU could work with his party, if it abandons the so-called firewall (Brandmauer), under which no mainstream party will work with the far right.

Taken together, the developments around germany' s Merz attacks AfD in stormy debate after far point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.