BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday he was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by his party\u2019s state election defeat at the hands of the far-right AfD but vowed to stay the course with tough reforms while seeking to explain them better. \u201cThis is the heaviest electoral defeat the (CDU party) has suffered in years, in decades,\u201d said a crestfallen Merz after Sunday\u2019s vote in the ex-communist eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaturally, this will have to have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
His centre-right CDU scored just 17 percent against almost 44 percent for the anti-immigration, Russia-friendly and pro-Trump Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has vowed a \u201cremigration and deportation offensive\u201d targeting irregular migrants. AfD national co-leader Alice Weidel in a blistering attack on the morning after charged that \u201cno chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz\u201d and labelled him \u201ca major burden\u201d for Germany.<\/p>\n
The AfD\u2019s triumphant lead candidate in the state vote, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, said that voters had sent \u201ca signal to Berlin\u201d and mockingly thanked the 70-year-old Merz for being \u201ca very good campaigner\u201d for the AfD. Siegmund also said that \u2014 after his party narrowly missed an absolute majority \u2014 it was now reaching out to other parties and individual MPs to build a stable ruling coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very clear government mandate,\u201d Siegmund said. \u201cIt could hardly be clearer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sven Schulze, the defeated CDU state premier who continues as caretaker leader for now, acknowledged that now \u201cwe are the opposition \u2014 the mandate to govern now lies with the AfD\u201d.<\/p>\n
Merz conceded his own low poll ratings had played a role in his party\u2019s loss: \u201cI know that I personally was a constant topic in this election campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must try \u2014 I myself included \u2014 to reach people more effectively, including in the full range of their emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he also vowed that \u201cmy determination to continue on the path of reform is unbroken\u201d, saying this was needed for the sake of \u201cour children and grandchildren\u201d. On Germany\u2019s support for Ukraine, he stressed he would \u201cnot budge a single millimeter from my fundamental conviction that we must defend our freedom against Russia as well\u201d. Supporters of US President Donald Trump cheered on the AfD, with former US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell celebrating the results as \u201ca huge win and a new day in Germany\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tech billionaire Elon Musk had been among the first to celebrate AfD\u2019s victory with a resounding \u201cWell done!\u201d While Sunday\u2019s result sparked jubilation among the AfD\u2019s followers, the prospect of the first far-right government taking charge of a German state since World War II has deeply unsettled other parties, many migrants and minority groups.<\/p>\n
The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is labeled a \u201cright-wing extremist\u201d group by Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, and some of Siegmund\u2019s staff are former members of a since-banned neo-Nazi organisation.<\/p>\n
Weidel again slammed the government for allowing \u201cillegal migration, open borders, skyrocketing rates of crime committed by foreign nationals, and a refusal to carry out deportations\u201d. \u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d said a 28-year-old man who came from Afghanistan in 2015 and who asked not to be named, after reading news of the AfD\u2019s victory on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have two children here,\u201d he told AFP in the Saxony-Anhalt state capital of Magdeburg. \u201cWhat will happen if I have to leave?\u201d AfD national co-leader Tino Chrupalla sought to dispel such fears, saying that \u201cno one needs to be afraid of us\u201d. He told Deutschlandfunk radio that his party is not against people with a migrant background, \u201cprovided they are integrated, speak German … and contribute to the economy here\u201d. Merz stressed that German law, including on immigration, and the country\u2019s constitution \u201capply in Saxony-Anhalt as well \u2014 even after the election of an AfD state premier\u201d. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday he was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by his party\u2019s state election defeat at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[233,1817,1816],"class_list":["post-218877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-friedrich-merz","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-kuwait-news","tag-kuwait-times"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117231542951640446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}