BERLIN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A leader of Alternative for Germany taunted Chancellor Friedrich Merz in parliament Wednesday after it thrashed his party in a regional election. The German leader countered that the far-right party won\u2019t win a majority in the country, assailing its stance toward Ukraine and rhetoric on migration.<\/p>\n
Merz is under pressure after Alternative for Germany, or AfD, surged to its biggest win yet in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, while the chancellor\u2019s center-right Christian Democratic Union lost about half its support in the election. <\/p>\n
The result underlined AfD\u2019s skill in harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its core theme of curbing immigration as an unpopular national government struggles to turn around a stubbornly sluggish economy. <\/p>\n
Two more states are scheduled to hold elections on Sept. 20: Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an eastern state where AfD is strong but Merz\u2019s CDU has long been weak.<\/p>\n
AfD\u2019s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, told Merz as she opened the annual budget debate in parliament that \u201cin Saxony-Anhalt, people didn\u2019t just punish you, they pulverized your party.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou haven\u2019t understood the message that voters in Saxony-Anhalt sent you on Sunday,\u201d she said. \u201cBut that isn\u2019t relevant because your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy and they will get it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Weidel predicted future elections will produce \u201ca clear mandate to govern\u201d for her party.<\/p>\n
A combative Merz responded that AfD\u2019s state election result was \u201cremarkable\u201d but noted the party said during the campaign it would only govern with an absolute majority and then missed that target.<\/p>\n
Voters \u201cgave us, me as well, a clear message. But you don\u2019t have the absolute majority, and you won\u2019t achieve it in Germany. You won\u2019t get majorities anywhere in Germany with these policies,\u201d Merz said. \u201cYou are, and remain, Ms. Weidel, a destructive force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merz pointed toward Weidel\u2019s comments on Ukraine. AfD opposes aid to the country and advocates lifting sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the U.S. is making another attempt to end the murderous Ukraine war, you are stepping up the war propaganda and the confrontation with Russia, and burning the last bridges to distract from your own disastrous political record,\u201d Weidel told Merz. <\/p>\n
The chancellor vowed Germany will continue supporting Ukraine, and told AfD lawmakers that \u201cyour reactions only show that you obviously intend to continue the downright grotesque inversion of perpetrator and victim.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said \u201cyou clearly continue to stand by Russia when it comes to defending our freedom,\u201d and noted Weidel didn\u2019t mention an attempted drone attack at Germany\u2019s Leipzig\/Halle airport, which the government last week blamed on Russia.<\/p>\n
Merz, whose government has moved to toughen migration policy, also attacked AfD\u2019s use of the politically charged term \u201cremigration\u201d while pushing for more deportations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe word \u2018remigration\u2019 is nothing but a synonym for ethnic cleansing according to origin and skin color,\u201d Merz told lawmakers, contending that implementing it would mean hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and many businesses would be unable to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we must deport more is a consensus in the [governing] coalition,\u201d Merz said, but it differentiates between people who work and are welcome in Germany and those who don\u2019t have a right to residence.<\/p>\n
AfD\u2019s victory in Saxony-Anhalt was applauded by far-right parties across Europe. It also caught the attention of U.S. President Trump. <\/p>\n
\u201cWow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,\u201d Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly,\u201d Trump added, without mentioning the party by name. \u201cTHEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore!\u201d<\/p>\n
Moulson writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A leader of Alternative for Germany taunted Chancellor Friedrich Merz in parliament Wednesday after it thrashed his party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[452,456,5035,4409,62857,62858,5,62856,4206,690,4427,62859,1831,3849,774],"class_list":["post-88255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-afd","tag-alice-weidel","tag-alternative","tag-chancellor","tag-election-triumph","tag-german-far-right-party","tag-germany","tag-majority","tag-merz","tag-migration","tag-party","tag-remigration","tag-russia","tag-saxony-anhalt","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}