Far-right win leaves Germany’s Merz shaken as AfD plots path to power

The anti-immigrant, pro-Russia AfD won nearly 44 percent of the vote, an outcome that underlined the deep unpopularity of Merz’s ruling coalition and also triggered alarm among neighbours and elsewhere.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz ruled out working with the Alternative for Germany on Monday after the ​far-right party surged into first place in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, but he conceded the result had shaken his party “to its very foundations”.