The AfD's bid for power in eastern Germany

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a landslide 43.8% of the vote in the September 6-7 state election in Saxony-Anhalt, more than double the 17.2% won by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), though it fell three seats short of an outright majority in the 83-seat state parliament. It marked the strongest showing yet for the AfD, whose Saxony-Anhalt branch is officially classified as right-wing extremist by German domestic intelligence, and would make it the first far-right party to govern a German state since World War Two if it secures a coalition or minority-government partner -- talks were ongoing with the small left-wing-populist BSW party and disaffected CDU lawmakers. Merz called the result "seismic" and, in a stormy Bundestag debate, told AfD leader Alice Weidel her party's mass-deportation "remigration" policy amounted to "ethnic cleansing" in the skilled trades; Weidel said the vote proved his coalition had failed.

The result drew international reaction, with Donald Trump praising the AfD's performance and Russian officials calling it a win for the "pragmatic" party, while Polish PM Donald Tusk said only "idiots and traitors" would celebrate it. About 150,000 people protested against the AfD in some 20 German cities the following weekend, and Jewish community leader Charlotte Knobloch, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, said the result made it "hard to recognise my homeland." AfD figures have also faced scrutiny over Russia-friendly sympathies, including a lawmaker who kept a Russian army mug in his office.