SCHWERIN/BERLIN, Germany, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took first place in state elections in northeastern Germany on Sunday, voting projections showed, delivering the worst result for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s mainstream conservative party since 1949.

“It’s a disaster,” Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), said after exit polls were published, although he signaled he would fight on as chancellor and continue his reform agenda after speculation that a bad result could prompt him to resign.

The AfD was set to win 38.3% in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, ahead of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) at 35.4%, according to projections on ARD public television. Both parties were far ahead of Merz’s conservatives, who at the latest count had fallen to 4.9%, below the 5% threshold needed to enter the state parliament and indicating they may be excluded altogether.

Sunday’s result has given the AfD its second top-place finish this month at the state level. The AfD beat out other parties in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6 with 43.8% of the vote and 39 of 83 state parliament seats, falling just short of a majority and marking Germany’s greatest far-right victory in a state election since World War II.

The Afd leads in national opinion polls but has been kept from power by the other main parties’ refusal to work with it.

“Antisemitism is embedded” in parts of the AfD’s rhetoric, ideology, and political culture, according to the American Jewish Committee, which also says that “the AfD’s support for Israel is selective and does not necessarily reflect a rejection of antisemitism.” In a report last year, it also charged that some of the AfD’s most prominent politicians “have minimized Nazi crimes, promoted conspiracy theories, or used language associated with Germany’s far-right extremist tradition.”

Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in 2024 he feared the AfD “would deliberately act against Jewish life, if it fits into their concept,” and charged that the party offers antisemites a home.

In another election on Sunday in the........

© The Times of Israel