Merz Accuses AfD of "Ethnic Cleansing" After Party's Landslide Win in Saxony-Anhalt Election

A fierce row erupted in the Bundestag in Berlin on Wednesday morning between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and lawmakers from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), after the far-right party scored a landslide victory in regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt, winning nearly 44% of the vote.

MPs were supposed to be debating next year's draft budget, but the session quickly descended into a shouting match complete with whistling and heckling. Merz's own party, the CDU, suffered one of its worst regional defeats in a decade.

"Your time is up"

AfD leader Alice Weidel declared that the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition had failed, accusing the government of deindustrialising the country and driving up energy costs. She called for a return to nuclear power and cheap Russian gas. "Your time is up," she told Merz directly.

AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla compared the CDU's defeat to shoddy building work: "If you botch a job on a construction site, you get fired," he said, branding Merz a "bungler."

The chancellor gave as good as he got. He was quick to point out that despite its victory, the AfD had failed to win an absolute majority in the region. "Nowhere in Germany will politics like yours ever win you a majority," he told the party's MPs, calling the AfD a "destructive force."

Clash over "ethnic cleansing" and migration

The sharpest exchange centred on migration. Merz described "remigration" — the term the AfD has long used for its plan to mass-deport people with migrant backgrounds — as "nothing other than ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin colour."

The chancellor then turned directly to Chrupalla, a former painter and decorator before entering politics, reminding him that one in six workers in Germany's skilled trades has a migrant background. According to Merz, if the AfD's "remigration" plan were ever carried out, countless businesses would lose workers they are already struggling to find — dealing a serious blow to the German economy.

As Merz spoke, AfD MPs loudly jeered, whistling, laughing and shouting him down. Coalition SPD lawmakers faced similar treatment. Such raw displays of emotion are rare in the German parliament. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner was eventually forced to halt proceedings: "This is not a football pitch. If this happens again, I will have you removed. I've had enough," she warned MPs from the far-right party.

Accusations of ties to Russia

Merz also accused the AfD of effectively serving Russia's interests, criticising the party's silence over Russian disinformation campaigns and the attack on Leipzig Airport, which he said had been planned in Russia for months. "You haven't said a word about it. You just laugh. That shows exactly how you think — and whose side you're on," he told Weidel.

With his blistering speech, Merz sought to signal that the government has no intention of ceding the initiative to the AfD despite its electoral setback. Yet his own standing has clearly weakened following the defeat in Saxony-Anhalt, with criticism mounting for months — including from within his own CDU. The chancellor admitted he saw the election result as a personal warning sign as well, and beyond going after the AfD, he also found himself defending his own leadership style in front of parliament.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz