AfD sets sights on German federal elections after state victory

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is eyeing the federal elections after its landslide victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, its co-leader Alice Weidel said Monday.

The AfD will emerge as the strongest party by a wide margin, with a very clear mandate to govern in the upcoming federal elections, Weidel told reporters in Berlin.

“The CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) will never again be able to win a federal election. That’s a fact,” she added.

She projected the gap between the CDU/CSU and the AfD is already 10 percentage points.

“And my stated goal is to significantly widen that gap in the shortest possible time and increase it to at least 40% by the next federal election,” she said.

Germans seeking political change,

Meanwhile, Weidel said that Germany wants political change, citing election results in Saxony-Anhalt.

“No chancellor before has been as unpopular as Friedrich Merz, who has become a major obstacle to Germany’s development,” she said.

“The people in this country no longer want business as usual -- with illegal migration, open borders, skyrocketing crime rates among foreign nationals, refused deportations, a disastrous energy policy leading to the highest energy prices in the world, and rampant deindustrialization that is breaking the backbone of Germany,” Weidel added.

She cited high taxes and an eroding education system as further problems.

Weidel called the election outcome a dream result for her party. She linked it to an extremely high turnout among non-voters, an influx of voters from other parties, and a record voter turnout of nearly 80%.

The AfD won Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt by a wide margin but fell short of an absolute majority.