After AfD Landslide in Saxony-Anhalt, Things Could Hardly Get Worse for Friedrich Merz

The AfD’s triumph in Saxony-Anhalt did not come out of nowhere, Die Presse argues. Germany and its former grand coalition had been warned for months that the state could deliver a landslide for the “pale-blue” right-wing populists, along with consequences for national politics.

The article says comparisons with the Weimar Republic have produced a degree of hysteria, but it calls the concerns legitimate. Even if the party, classified as right-wing extremist in the state, ultimately fell short of an absolute majority in Magdeburg, its strong position in eastern Germany remains unchanged. The next shock could come in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in two weeks, although the article notes that state premier Manuela Schwesig has begun a strong recovery campaign.

For Friedrich Merz, the result is also a personal vote of no confidence. The CDU kept the chancellor “hidden” during the Saxony-Anhalt campaign, leaving him below the radar. Die Presse calls that both embarrassing and revealing of the collapse in trust surrounding a CDU leader who once promised to halve the AfD’s support and push it to the margins.

The commentary portrays the AfD’s eastern support as rooted in deep frustration and a vague resentment toward everything seen as coming “from above.” It says the party has become socially acceptable in the region despite visible extremist associations and figures with relevant pasts.

Ulrich Siegmund, the candidate presented as the party’s friendly public face, helped cover those darker associations, the article says. Der Spiegel’s label of him as “Germany’s most dangerous man” was turned around by Siegmund, but the article says that tactic backfired. It ends in the supplied text as it begins to discuss his campaign attack on the judiciary and media in Magdeburg.