Former German federal chancellor Angela Merkel lamented the victory of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Sunday’s elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. “The polls predicted it, but seeing the result in black and white is something that causes shock. As a CDU (Christian Democratic Union) member, it breaks my heart,” Merkel said at a digital fair in Cologne, in the west of the country.
Merkel criticized the parties’ fixation on the cordon sanitaire against the AfD, instead of focusing on their own program and properly presenting it to voters, highlighted the Deutsche Welle network.
The AfD obtained 43.8% of the votes in Saxony-Anhalt compared to 17.2% for the CDU, Merkel’s party and that of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“That is something I did not invent and I don’t like how it works. That is not something that convinces people. I have to tell them what I want for the country, formulate concrete positions, for example regarding pensions, and from there show that cooperation with the AfD is not possible,” Merkel said.
“Naturally, emotions are also important and you have to reach people emotionally as well. But facts have to be considered when arguing. If we allow emotions to have more importance than facts, we will suffer a civilizational setback,” she assured.
Thousands of Germans have organized protests against the AfD following its historic victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state elections, warning that it poses a danger in two other elections this month.
Protesters at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin held a peaceful rally in favor of democracy to denounce the anti-immigrant and pro-Russian AfD party, which has called for mass deportations of asylum seekers and the reduction of state support for renewable energies and public broadcasting, highlighted The Guardian.
On Sunday, the far-right party achieved its best historic state result in the former communist state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the east of the country, and has a clear momentum ahead of the regional elections to be held on September 20 in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on the Baltic coast.
Less than two weeks before the elections, protesters at the Berlin rally warned against resignation and cynicism following the surprising result on Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt.
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The nearly 44% of votes that the AfD obtained in Saxony-Anhalt, the best result for a nativist party since the Nazi era, is a “shame that provokes fury and astonishment,” declared Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the memorial of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, from the stage.
Wagner warned that the AfD, although it did not reach an absolute majority, was about to take power in Saxony-Anhalt, something unprecedented for the far right since World War II. He stated that this “must not go unpunished.”
Hundreds of anti-AfD protesters also gathered in Potsdam, near Berlin, and rallies were organized in Münster, Göttingen, Dresden, Aachen, Bamberg, Darmstadt, and Halberstadt, in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD obtained nearly half of the votes, according to local media reports.
The AfD leads the voting intention polls in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with approximately 35%. However, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) of the state premier, Manuela Schwesig, staged a remarkable comeback during the summer and now exceeds 30%.
In Berlin, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, the outlook is more uncertain, with several parties competing for first place. The city is governed by a coalition of the CDU and SPD.
The CDU, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, whose unprecedented unpopularity reportedly influenced many voters in Saxony-Anhalt, maintains a narrow lead in the capital, around 20%.
Close behind is Die Linke (The Left), which has focused its campaign on the soaring cost of housing, and the AfD, followed by the SPD and the Green ecologists, both with poll support around 15%.
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