Merz reacts to the AfD's historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt and rejects the government's withdrawal

This will have consequences. Giving up will not be one of them. The Prime Minister of Germany, Friedrich Merz, adopted a serious tone when commenting for the first time, this Monday (7), the solid victory of the AfD (Alternative for Germany) in the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, one of the country's 16 states. However, he ruled out any possibility of giving up on the government itself.

In Berlin, during a press interview at the headquarters of his party, the CDU, Merz said he was "deeply shocked" by the vote, the biggest victory for the far right in the country since the Second World War.

With a populist platform and appealing to the nostalgia of the electorate in one of the states that were part of East Germany, the AfD won 43.8% of the vote, a much higher vote than in 2024, in Thuringia, when it also reached the largest group (32.8%).

Like party colleague Sven Schulze, current governor, Merz declared that the result should be accepted. "These are the rules of our democracy." He considered, however, that it would not be possible to simply continue with the agenda. "There is something that is not subject to voting: these are the rules of our coexistence and the values ​​of our Constitution."

Increasingly popular in the country, the AfD is considered by German intelligence services to be a "proven far-right party". The party contests the classification at the federal level, but has already lost similar disputes in several states, including Saxony-Anhalt.

Not surprisingly, at least 5,000 people, according to the police, participated in a protest against the party on Monday night in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the postcard of the German capital.

Hours earlier, Merz declared that Sunday's vote was being celebrated 2,500 km from Berlin, in reference to Russia, but reiterated that nothing changes in support for Ukraine. The AfD defends a rapprochement with Moscow — necessary, according to the party, to reestablish the flow of natural gas, which the European Union has boycotted since the advent of the war, in 2022.

The prime minister also recalled that Germany is facing internal security issues related to Russia. Last week, his office accused Moscow of sponsoring the hybrid action that took an explosives-laden drone to Leipzig airport in early August.

The issue and a series of episodes of sabotage on power lines across the country ignored the election, which focused on the AfD's populist flags, such as interventions in the culture and education sectors and also in areas of federal responsibility, such as taxes, energy and foreign policy.

Ulrich Siegmund, the party's main candidate and tipped to become its first governor, sought to give the position an international scope in an interview with foreign journalists on election day.

He stated that he wanted to meet with Donald Trump and that Vladimir Putin "should return to the table". On social media, the American president published a graph with the results of the vote on Sunday night, in a poke at the prime minister — Merz's CDU achieved 17.2% of the votes, almost 20 percentage points less than in the last election, in 2021, when it was still the main force in the state.

Also present at the interview in Berlin, Schulze, the governor, declared that the "mandate now belongs to the AfD". Parliament has 30 days, after the result is announced, to appoint a new minister-president, as the representative at the state level is called.

As the party with the biggest vote, the AfD has the priority of nominating Siegmund, but it still needs to decide how it wants to govern. With 39 seats in Parliament, three short of a majority, it will depend on negotiations with BSW, a peculiar party in Germany, which claims to be left-wing and conservative.

According to Siegmund, he could also count on defections coming from the CDU, a possibility that Merz ruled out in the interview. All this movement is justified by the parties' refusal to work with the AfD, the so-called Brandmauer ("firewall"). In Thuringia, two years ago, the party also had the largest bench, but was unable to form a government.