German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will huddle with his CDU party on Monday to discuss and digest their thumping defeat at the hands of the far-right AfD party in a state election in the ex-communist east.
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored its biggest win yet on Sunday with 44% of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt, against around 18% for the centre-right CDU, according to broadcasters' projections.
The visibly dejected CDU state premier Sven Schulze said his campaign was not always helped by national government policies, saying that "we often faced headwinds, and that wasn't always easy."
The ballot box triumph put the pro-Trump and Moscow-friendly AfD, officially listed as "right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, within reach of running its first-ever state government.
However, it appeared to have fallen just short of an absolute majority, setting the stage for lengthy haggling before a new government is formed in the state assembly in Magdeburg.
