German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed his shock after the far-right AfD party stormed to victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election over the weekend.
Merz appeared before the press in Berlin on Monday, together with the CDU's lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Sven Schulze, to address the outcome of the vote.
"Yesterday's result has changed not only Saxony-Anhalt, but Germany as a whole," Merz said following Sunday's state election results. "We are all profoundly shocked. We did not expect it to turn out like this."
The anti-immigration AfD party won the election by a landslide, taking 43.8% of the vote. The CDU came in a distant second with 17.2%.
Compared with the 2021 state election, the AfD more than doubled its vote share, while the CDU saw its share halved.
