Merz Brought the Words. Weidel Brought the Votes.

"Your time has run out." That was Alice Weidel's message to Germany's ruling parties after her far-right Alternative for Germany (the AfD) won more than 43% of the vote in the smallest of Germany's 16 states, Saxony-Anhalt.

'Destructive Force' was German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's blistering response, in a fierce debate in the country's parliament that usually borders on the boring.

"The term 'remigration' is nothing but a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin colour," Merz said to applause from the other parties in Berlin's Bundestag lower house. "If those working in Germany have to leave the country again because you are championing 'remigration', then the skilled trades in Germany will no longer be able to function. Not a single care home will remain open, not a single hospital in Germany will remain operational, and not a single restaurant in Germany will be able to stay in business."

Merz wasn't holding back on his opinion as he faced off with Weidel.

AfD's win of 39 of 83 seats in a region of 1.5 million people in East Germany has sent shockwaves across Europe…although it WAS 3 seats short of the AfD being able to form a government.

Weidel hit back at Merz and hard. "You haven't understood the message that voters in Saxony-Anhalt sent you on Sunday... But that isn't relevant because your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy and they will get it."

And she can afford to be a little cocky.

The AfD has spent more than a decade moving from a fringe political movement into one of Germany's most powerful electoral forces. Its 43.8% result in Saxony-Anhalt more than doubled its share of the vote since the last state election, and it now holds almost half the seats in the regional parliament.

A Worried Europe, An Exuberant Trump

Spain's Prime Minister has warned Europe of the rise of the far right; as has France's Prime Minister among other European leaders.

Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Donald Trump was exuberantly supportive of Weidel's party posting on his Truth Social account, "THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore!"

Merz cancelled his call with the U.S. President right after.

German government spokesman Stefan Cornelius declined to comment but made it clear that the matter was not simply a scheduling conflict. He simply referred to the position Merz had already clearly expressed several times: "in an abstract form," that "interference or comments regarding the domestic political situation in Germany, especially in connection with elections," were "unacceptable" to him.

The Firewall Under Pressure

Traditionally, Germany's major political parties on both the left and right have committed to a firewall – between the AfD and government - that means none of them would form coalitions with the AfD or rely on its votes to govern.

The firewall is rooted in German history. After the Second World War, the country rebuilt its democratic institutions with a very deliberate understanding of what had happened when nationalism, political extremism and economic discontent were allowed to overwhelm democratic safeguards.

The Nazi regime had exploited the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic, dismantled democratic institutions and used the state to persecute and murder millions of people. Post-war Germany responded by creating a system designed to defend itself against movements that threaten the democratic order.

That includes the country's powerful domestic intelligence service – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – which has the authority to monitor political organisations suspected of seeking to undermine Germany's democratic system.

In recent years, the AfD has increasingly come under that scrutiny. In 2025, the intelligence service classified the national AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" organisation. They described the party's discriminatory language of who belongs to the German people, especially migrants, as one reason. The designation is being challenged in court. A ruling has temporarily prevented the intelligence service from publicly treating the national AfD as a confirmed extremist organisation, for now.

What is the AfD Pitching Voters?

The party's far-right credentials are hardly confined to its classification. Its programme calls for dramatically tougher immigration and asylum policies, stronger border controls and a more restrictive definition of who belongs in Germany. It wants to reverse major parts of Germany's climate and energy policy, including bringing back nuclear power and rebuilding closer energy ties with Russia. It opposes continued German military support for Ukraine and has called for sanctions against Russia to be lifted.

Who is Alice Weidel?

Leading the AfD is Alice Weidel. A living contradiction to the policies she espouses.

She is openly lesbian. Her partner, Sarah Bossard, was born in Sri Lanka, and together they are raising two children. Yet Weidel leads a party that promotes the traditional heterosexual family, opposes same-sex adoption and campaigns against what it calls "gender ideology". She has described herself as a "hardcore" German nationalist, while living with her family primarily in Switzerland. The contradictions are striking.

The Modern Far-Right Appeal

Those contradictions tell us something about the modern European far right: its political appeal isn't necessarily dependent on its leaders fitting the traditional social conservative mould. Weidel can present herself as proof that the AfD is not simply opposed to individual identities, while simultaneously campaigning against the immigration and social policies she says are changing Germany.

What's Fuelling the AfD's Rise?

Saxony-Anhalt is one of the former East German states, where reunification with the West did not bring economic prosperity. The region has lost roughly a quarter of its population since reunification; average full-time earnings remain significantly lower than in western Germany and many communities have experienced decades of industrial and demographic decline.

But economics alone doesn't explain the AfD's appeal.

Recent polling in Saxony-Anhalt found that 91% of AfD voters are worried about too many foreigners in Germany, 85% believe the country's way of life is changing and 83% feel eastern Germans are still treated as second-class citizens. Voters in the state felt their quality of life was slipping away and blamed not only migrants, but also mainstream politicians and business leaders who have profited from a cost-of-living crisis.

The AfD has successfully connected those concerns into a broader political argument: Germany is changing too quickly, established parties have lost touch with ordinary voters, and the country needs to put national interests ahead of immigration, climate policy and European integration.

It is also winning people who previously stayed away from the ballot box. Around 170,000 former non-voters turned out for the AfD, while the party also attracted tens of thousands of former CDU voters.

The result has put Germany's established parties in a difficult position. They have spent years refusing to cooperate with the AfD. Now almost half of voters in Saxony-Anhalt have backed a party deliberately kept outside the political mainstream.

Change vs Status Quo

The challenge for mainstream politics is to understand why AfD support has grown so dramatically and how long Germany's political establishment can maintain the firewall if that support continues to rise.

The consequences for Europe are significant, considering the warning bells being rung from Paris, Madrid and beyond.

Germany is Europe's largest economy and one of its most important political and military powers. A poll suggests most Germans do not expect the unpopular Chancellor Merz to serve through to the 2029 election even as he tries to strengthen European defence, maintain support for Ukraine and position Germany as a leader within the EU.

Weidel's AfD wants the opposite. It wants out of the Euro and Schengen, less European integration, an end to military support for Ukraine, closer relations with Russia and a much more restrictive approach to immigration.

The Next Test

The next test comes quickly. The next German state, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, votes later this month, with the AfD polling strongly there.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD hasn't taken power. But coming three seats short has been enough to shake Germany's political establishment.

For decades, Germany's far right could be treated as a movement on the margins. Now it is winning elections, mobilising voters who had previously stayed home and forcing the country's established parties to confront a political movement they've spent decades refusing to legitimise.

And underneath all of this is Germany's relationship with its own history. For 80 years, the country has built its democratic identity around confronting the crimes of the Nazi regime by teaching about the Holocaust, memorialising its victims and taking responsibility for what happened.

Germany made "never again" a defining principle of its post-war democracy. Now, that principle is being tested by a far right whose influence is growing rapidly across the country.