Media: Merz "shot himself in the foot" with speech after AfD election win

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “shot himself in the foot” with a "disastrous" Bundestag speech following the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) decisive victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, German paper Die Welt writes. 

According to the paper, Merz’s address “oscillated between sentimentality and aggression, distorted the facts and lost the thread of his argument,” while failing to offer a convincing answer to the question of what Germany stands for today.

The newspaper argued that Merz missed an opportunity to put political pressure on his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has been losing support, or to address problems facing his own government. Instead, he directed a barrage of criticism at the AfD, despite the party not being responsible for the country’s current difficulties, the report said.

Merz sought to emphasise that 56% of voters in Saxony-Anhalt did not vote for the AfD. However, the newspaper noted that 83% of voters also did not vote for Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The comments came after a major electoral setback for Merz’s party in Saxony-Anhalt. In the September 6 state election, the AfD won 43.8% of the vote, according to preliminary official results, securing a clear victory.

Merz’s CDU finished a distant second with 17.2%, losing more than half of its vote share compared with the 2021 election and recording its worst-ever result in Saxony-Anhalt. The SPD came third with 9.3%.