Germany’s Merz under pressure from far-right election triumph
Ulrich Siegmund, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s main candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, gestures as he addresses supporters at the AfD's election party following Saxony-Anhalt's state elections in Magdeburg, eastern Germany on September 6, 2026. Germany's far-right AfD won a landslide victory in a key regional election on September 6 in the ex-communist east, according to exit polls, but it remain unclear whether it can win an absolute majority to govern. (AFP Photo)
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), emboldened by a state election triumph, charged on Sept. 7 that center-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz had become “a major burden” for the country.
“No chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a major burden on Germany’s prosperous development,” said party co-leader Alice Weidel, after her party won Saxony-Anhalt state elections in a landslide.
Speaking at a Berlin press conference, she confidently predicted that her AfD party would beat Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc in 2029 national elections.
