No alternative: With voters turning out in droves, preliminary end results from Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt ballot show the AfD securing 43.8% of the vote, representing 39 seats of the 83-member state parliament.
Although this is short of an outright majority, with the official results expected Monday night, it is already being interpreted as a major loss for Merz’ centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party. This is a party that has led the region of Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years, but only scraped through 17.2% of the votes.
Nothing short of a disaster: AfD co-chair Alice Weidel told CNN she expects Merz to be out by Christmas. The German chancellor has so far stayed out of the spotlight, but is expected to front-up to his cabinet today in the capital for crisis talks.
CDU member of the German Bundestag Günter Krings just admitted to Europe Today that this was a "devastating result" and "the perception and credibility of our party is a low". Asked about how this impacts the European Union, he said the right would feel "emboldened". "The European Union also should ask, 'What did we contribute to this anger, and what do we have to change?'" Watch.
Interesting to note: European Council President António Costa will be in Berlin on Wednesday and will hold court with Merz. It’s part of Costa’s tour of the capitals — a weeks-long voyage around the member states aiming to collect intel from leaders about their hopes, desires, and gripes with the state of EU affairs. The election results could factor into these talks.
