Germany’s Merz vows to fight ‘extremism’ after AfD, far-left election gains

Far-right and far-left parties gain ground in local elections as Merz’s approval rating sinks.Chancellor ⁠Friedrich Merz has hit out at what he called political “extremism” in Germany after recent stinging defeats in local elections to far-right and far-left parties.“This is a task for ⁠our society as ⁠a whole, and it is ⁠one I intend ⁠to play ⁠my part in,” he said on Wednesday at an ‌event in Berlin.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Russia’s nuclear plants are ageing. Who will pay to dismantle them?list 2 of 3Russia hits Kyiv bridge as Germany’s Merz visits Ukraine’s capitallist 3 of 3Germany’s Merz in Kyiv announces $1.5B in aid, urges Putin to end warend of listMerz said “extremism” was forcefully making its way into the country’s parliaments, a day after a member of the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany (AfD) was elected president of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt and the Left Party won out in Berlin’s state election last month.“Anyone who casts their vote for ⁠the AfD is ⁠playing the extremists’ game and undermining credibility,” ⁠Merz said. “In ⁠any case, this is incompatible with the values of ‌my party, the CDU [Germany" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="52857" data-entity-type="organization">Christian Democratic Union of Germany].”Despite winning the vote in the September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD fell three seats short of the absolute majority it had had sought. AfD lawmaker Tobias Rausch won the presidency of the parliament in the eastern German state Tuesday, backed by the left-populists in a secret ballot.Founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic movement, the AfD won over voters with an increasingly hardline opposition to immigration after about a million people fled to Germany in 2015, many of them from war-torn Syria.The party has since become a dominant political force in much of eastern Germany, especially among voters disillusioned with mainstream parties, though most traditional parties have pledged not to enter coalitions with the AfD.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin on October 7, 2026 [Tobias Schwarz/AFP]Berlin electionMerz’s comments followed the far-left Left Party’s victory in the Berlin state election on September 20, in another defeat for the chancellor’s ruling Christian Democrats.