Politico: Saxony-Anhalt’s incumbent premier Sven Schulze, from the CDU, struck a more sober note on Sunday night. “Some say this is a dark day for Saxony-Anhalt. I say: That’s democracy,” he told ARD. “The people went to the polls today.”
The rout piles pressure on Merz, who once vowed to cut the AfD in half but has been chancellor while the far-right party has boomed in the polls…
Friedrich Merz in ‘shock’ as far-right AfD celebrates ‘dream result’
Asked whether he himself would consider stepping down, Merz said: “Giving up is not an option for me.” The chancellor said the CDU would draw lessons from the party’s “worst defeat” in decades…
After Far-Right Triumph, Merz Faces Narrow Path to Save His Government
Many analysts expect the chancellor will have to abandon or weaken the so-called firewall, the informal agreement among mainstream parties to ostracize the AfD. A decision could come as early as next month after two more state elections in late September.
Merz could give CDU politicians at the state level latitude to vote with the AfD on specific bills while barring them from formally joining an AfD government. An internal party ban on working with the postcommunist Left Party could also be lifted for balance…
German nationalists’ big win sounds alarm for mainstream politicians in Europe
“We have achieved exactly what we wanted. We have made history,” Ulrich Siegmund, a 35-year-old former salesman turned social media star who led the AfD’s campaign, declared in a victory speech at the party’s headquarters in Magdeburg, the state capital. The result, he added, would “shake all of Germany.”
And not just Germany. In Berlin, Brussels and capitals across Europe and the Western world, the meteoric rise and first-place finish of the AfD, a party labeled “extremist” by German intelligence, sent tremors through establishment political circles — suggesting that politics once derided as far-right had moved decisively into the mainstream of the electorate in a state of more 2 million people…
Germany’s far-right AfD says ‘democracy demands’ parties work with them after state election win
There’s also the prospect of another election to break the deadlock – an idea which has been mooted by Siegmund who has said he doesn’t want to compromise on his policy goals…