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Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, said Monday that Chancellor Friedrich Merz had become a “major burden” for the country after the party scored a commanding victory in Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt state election.
“No chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a major burden on Germany’s prosperous development,” AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said.
“The election in Saxony-Anhalt has shown that people expect a change in politics,” she added.
Exit polls conducted for public broadcasters ARD and ZDF showed the AfD winning around 44% of the vote in the eastern state, more than double its result five years ago.
Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, which has governed Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years, trailed at roughly 18.5%, losing about half of its previous support.
The result put the AfD within reach of leading a German state government for the first time in its 13-year history.
Exit polls indicated the AfD fell just short of the absolute majority needed to govern Saxony-Anhalt alone.
Whether the party secured enough seats to form a government without coalition partners remained unclear.
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