Trump praises hard-right AfD party’s election victory: ‘Germany finally got tired of the immigration rules which hurt them so badly’
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Reaction to the AfD's breakthrough win in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt broadened into international debate, with Donald Trump praising the hard-Right party and blaming Germany's "horrible" immigration rules for pushing voters towards it. The result rattled mainstream European politics, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union suffering its worst showing in the state in decades, and figures across the continent, including Poland's Donald Tusk, Spain's Pedro Sánchez and allies of France's Emmanuel Macron, warning of a wider far-Right surge ahead of future elections.
The AfD took 44 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling its previous support and finishing just three seats short of an outright majority, while the CDU collapsed to 17 per cent. Merz called it the "heaviest electoral defeat" his party had suffered in years and said reforms were now needed, while Trump's Truth Social post hailed the "Populist Party" as "on the rise". Elsewhere, Tusk branded Polish sympathisers of the AfD "idiots or traitors", Sánchez warned of an advancing "extremist threat", and Macron allies called for centrist, Left and Right forces to unite behind a single candidate to block the hard-Right in France's 2027 presidential race; Elon Musk was also reported to have welcomed the AfD's result.
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In short
- AfD won 44% in Saxony-Anhalt, nearly a majority
- Trump praised the win, blamed Germany's immigration rules
- Merz's CDU crashed to 17%; EU leaders voiced alarm
How this story developed
- 2 months ago Reaction to the AfD's state election breakthrough in Germany has widened, with more world leaders and figures weighing in alongside Donald Trump's praise for the hard-Right party.
- 2 months ago Donald Trump praised the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after it surged to first place in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, claiming Germans had grown "tired" of immigration policies he called "horrible." The result puts the party within reach of power at state level for the first time since the Second World War and has triggered alarm among European leaders, who fear it signals growing momentum for the far right across the continent.
- 2 months ago Reaction to the AfD's breakthrough win in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt broadened into international debate, with Donald Trump praising the hard-Right party and blaming Germany's "horrible" immigration rules for pushing voters towards it.
Full account
Donald Trump has praised the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after the party topped a regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, blaming the result on what he called Germany's failed approach to immigration. Writing on his Truth Social platform, the US president declared that the 'Populist Party' had enjoyed 'a really big night', adding that voters had 'finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly'. He concluded the post by declaring the AfD 'on the rise' and stating that Germans were 'not going to take it anymore'.
The AfD took roughly 44 per cent of the vote in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt election, comfortably beating pre-election forecasts and more than doubling the support it won in the state five years earlier. It secured 39 of the 83 seats in the regional parliament, leaving it just a handful short of an outright majority. The long-dominant Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which governs the state and leads the national coalition under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, suffered a heavy collapse, shedding around 25 seats and falling to roughly 17 per cent of the vote — its worst showing in the region in decades. The AfD's regional co-chair, Ulrich Siegmund, credited much of the swing to dissatisfaction with Merz's chancellorship, telling German broadcaster ARD that the situation 'cannot carry on like this'.
The outcome leaves the AfD's path to power unclear, since the CDU and the other parties that won seats — the Left Party, the Social Democrats and the Greens — have all ruled out forming a coalition with it, maintaining the so-called 'firewall' that mainstream German parties have upheld against the AfD nationally. Complicating matters further, the AfD's branch in Saxony-Anhalt has been designated an extremist organisation by Germany's domestic intelligence service. The only other party to win seats, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), took five, meaning the AfD would likely need its cooperation to govern even informally. Merz himself described the result as a shock, calling it the heaviest defeat suffered by his party in years and acknowledging that it would demand a political response, though he stopped short of detailing what that might involve.
The AfD's performance — a party that has taken a notably friendly line towards Russia and campaigned hard on curbing immigration — has unsettled figures well beyond Germany. Allies of French President Emmanuel Macron argued that the result underlined the need for centrist, left and right-leaning factions to rally behind a single candidate ahead of France's 2027 presidential race to keep the far right from power there. Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, was scathing about Polish sympathisers of the AfD, while Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, warned of a broader 'extremist threat' spreading internationally. Trump's public endorsement of the AfD's showing stands in sharp contrast to the alarm expressed by many European leaders, highlighting a continuing divide between Washington's current administration and much of the EU's political mainstream over how to characterise the party's rise.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
The two reports give slightly different vote-share figures for the AfD (one cites around 44 per cent, the other a more precise 43.8 per cent) and only one provides exact seat totals (39 of 83 seats, with the CDU reduced to 15).
One account frames the result mainly through its domestic mechanics — coalition arithmetic, the 'firewall' against the AfD, the extremist classification of its regional branch, and a direct quote from AfD figure Ulrich Siegmund crediting Chancellor Merz for the swing — while the other leans more heavily into the international fallout, citing reactions from Macron allies, Poland's Donald Tusk and Spain's Pedro Sánchez.
Only one source places the result in the historical context of being the closest a hard-right party has come to power at German state level since the Second World War.
One report notes the CDU's losses in vote-share terms (around 17 per cent) while the other quantifies the defeat mainly in seats lost (roughly 25 seats, down to 15).
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the AfD's rise argue that mainstream parties spent years dismissing legitimate public anxiety over high migration levels, strained housing, welfare and integration services, and a series of high-profile crimes linked to asylum seekers, rather than addressing it. From this view, voters are not embracing extremism but simply punishing establishment parties, including Chancellor Merz's CDU, for failing to deliver the border controls and enforcement they promised, and are entitled to demand a harder line on immigration through the ballot box like any other democratic preference. Figures such as Trump and Musk who welcome the result see it as evidence that ordinary Germans are reclaiming a say over national identity and security policy that elites had placed beyond debate.
The case against
Critics warn that the AfD is not simply a tough-on-immigration party but one whose regional branches have been formally classified by German domestic intelligence as right-wing extremist, and that normalising its success risks eroding the postwar consensus against nationalist politics that Germany built precisely because of its history. From this perspective, foreign leaders and commentators praising the AfD are lending legitimacy to a movement that mainstream conservatives, centrists and the left alike regard as a genuine threat to liberal democratic norms, minority rights and European cohesion, and figures like Tusk and Sánchez see urgent value in a unified democratic front, even among rival parties, to prevent such movements gaining power through vote-splitting rather than genuine majority support.
Explained simply
Trump is the outgoing US president, known for his hardline stance on immigration and past praise for populist and nationalist movements in Europe. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a hard-right party that campaigns mainly on reducing immigration and taking a tougher line on asylum policy; it has grown steadily in support since the mid-2010s and is treated with caution by mainstream German politicians and monitored by domestic intelligence over concerns about extremism. Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany's sixteen federal states, and its state elections are seen as an early signal of the mood ahead of national voting.
Friedrich Merz leads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany's traditional centre-right party and the main party of government for much of the post-war period. The CDU has ruled out forming coalitions with the AfD at national level, a stance known as the "firewall," which has made it harder for the AfD to translate rising vote shares into actual power.
The story matters because it feeds into a wider debate across Europe about the growth of hard-right, anti-immigration parties, from France to Poland to Spain, and what that could mean for elections and alliances in the coming years, including France's presidential vote due in 2027.
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