Germany's political establishment is still absorbing the shock of Sunday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 43.8 percent and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz crashed to 17.2 percent.
Merz called the result the CDU's "heaviest defeat" in decades and said it could not simply be treated as business as usual.
"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades," Merz told reporters in Berlin after CDU leadership meetings. "We are all deeply shocked...We did not expect it to be like this."
"That does something to us. Including me personally... All of this will, of course, have to have consequences," he continued.
🇩🇪🔴BREAKING: Merz just said he is "deeply shocked" by the AfD's landslide victory.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 7, 2026
"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades."
"That does something to us. Including me personally... All of this will, of course,... pic.twitter.com/L4cycKdH6h
It remains unclear what those "consequences" will be exactly, as Merz did not clarify. However, he did point t
