Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday he is "confident" that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) will not win outright majorities in regional elections two easteern states this year. Polls give the AfD leads in both Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania, and a sharp increase in support in Berlin ahead of the September elections.
In Saxony-Anhalt in particular the party is viewed as having a realistic chance of winning a majority of seats and forming its first ever state-level government. "The election campaigns are just getting underway," said Merz, a conservative who has made combating the far right a key aim of his political programme.
"I remain confident that we will succeed in preventing the AfD from securing a parliamentary majority in any of the three states," Merz told an annual summer press conference. "And I will maintain this optimism right up to election night." Merz, whose own poll numbers have slumped as his government struggles to kick-start Germany's sluggish economy, campaigned on boosting growth and cracking down on migration.
Merz says his government's reform agenda, not confrontation, will be what stops the AfD at the ballot box this autumn. He argued that his coalition has "found its rhythm" and delivered enough policy progress to win back voters ahead of the state elections
The 70-year-old conservative contended that delivering on both would halt the far-right AfD, which he has described as a threat to German democracy. Merz on Wednesday defended his record in office despite the slow pace of reforms and continued stagnation of Europe's largest economy.
"The overall picture is positive," Merz said, saying that his coalition government "has found its stride, despite some criticism". "We have delivered, and we have recognised the scale of the tasks ahead of us," Merz said. The AfD has long been strong in the former communist east of Germany, which includes Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania.
Merz's Christian Democrats currently lead a broad coalition government in Saxony-Anhalt. The Social Democrats, Merz's centre-left national coalition partners, have continuously governed Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since the end of communism and reunification in 1991. Every other German political party has refused to cooperate with the AfD, a policy known as the "firewall".
The chancellor said that he "enjoys frequently traveling through the east" and has been seeking "to convince the people there of what we believe to be right".
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