German Chancellor Friedrich Merz clashed openly with far-right AfD leader Alice Weidel in the Bundestag, their first confrontation since the AfD's sweeping victory in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt state election. Merz branded the AfD a "destructive force" and said its "remigration" policy would amount to "ethnic cleansing" of skilled workers based on origin and skin colour, while Weidel accused his coalition of failing voters and driving Germany towards bankruptcy. The exchange matters because it marks the first time a far-right party has won a state election outright since the Second World War, prompting Merz to describe the result as "seismic" for German politics.

The AfD took almost 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling support and halving that of Merz's Christian Democrats, who fell to 17.2%, though the party remains three seats short of a majority needed to govern. The session grew so disorderly that Bundestag President Julia Klöckner threatened to eject heckling AfD MPs, telling them "we are not on a football pitch." US President Donald Trump praised the AfD's result, and a planned 9/11 anniversary call between Trump and Merz was abruptly postponed without explanation. The AfD, labelled "right-wing extremist" by German intelligence in the state, has signalled openness to coalition talks, potentially with the BSW, and one of its officials suggested Merz's CDU could join it if the party dropped its longstanding "firewall" policy against cooperating with the far right.