Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany party won its second regional election in a major victory on Sunday, dealing another blow to the country’s embattled, center-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
AfD won in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s elections on Sunday with 38% of the total vote. The Social Democratic Party on the Left came in second with 35% of the vote, while Merz’s Christian Democratic Union received just 4.9%.
“We can’t sugarcoat the results in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” Merz said. “It’s a disaster.”
The electoral result in the northeastern German state comes as the second win for AfD and second blowout loss for Merz’s center-right party in this year’s elections. Earlier in September, the AfD won in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, compared to Merz’s 17.2% and the Social Democrats’ 9.3%. Despite his losses, Merz is maintaining a positive outlook on the work he is doing leading Germany, and he vowed to remain “steadfast” in his agenda.
“These reforms are the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism,” Merz said on Sunday. “What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience.”
“I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country,” Merz continued, noting his decision to remain in office.
German intelligence considers the AfD an extremist group in some regions of the country, according to the Associated Press. Merz slammed the party in the wake of the Saxony-Anhalt results, claiming the AfD is promoting “ethnic cleansing” in its staunch policy campaign against illegal immigrants.
Merz told the AfD in a parliamentary debate that its hailed “remigration” policy is “nothing other than ethnic cleansing by skin color and origin.”
The AfD won 20.8% of the vote in the February 2025 elections, making it the largest opposition party in the German parliament and giving it the most parliamentary seats of any right-wing party in Germany since the Nazis, according to the American Jewish Committee.
While Merz is holding on to his leadership role and bashing the results as a “disaster,” AfD leaders are calling the results “catastrophic” for Merz’s CDU.
AfD leader Alice Weidel said the CDU party will “have to think very carefully about whether it can continue with this firewall” around the right wing and the AfD.
President Donald Trump had praised the AfD on Truth Social after its win in early September, saying the party is “ON THE RISE”
“Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night. They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly,” Trump said following the party’s initial win in Saxony-Anhalt.