Merz accuses AfD of ‘ethnic cleansing’ agenda, postpones call with Trump after president praises party

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is stonewalling President Donald Trump after the U.S. leader celebrated the victory of a party the chancellor claims is promoting “ethnic cleansing.”

Merz publicly confronted the Alternative for Deutschland in a parliamentary debate on Wednesday, just days after the right-wing party won a whopping 44% of the vote in the state election of Saxony-Anhalt — blowing away Merz’s party, which secured just 17%. AfD is running a campaign centrally focused on expelling illegal immigrants from the country.

The chancellor, who heads a coalition government of his Christian Democratic Union and the center-left Social Democrats, decried the AfD’s rise as an impending threat to the nation and a racially motivated movement.

“The word ‘remigration’ is nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing,” Merz declared during the debate. “Remigration is nothing other than ethnic cleansing by skin color and origin.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on during the general debate, as part of the budget deliberations in the Bundestag, in Berlin, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026 (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Merz acknowledged that the country is facing serious issues due to mass migration and that deportations will need to increase, but insisted that a distinction must be made between migrants who are contributing to society and those who are exploiting the system.

“We still have many people in Germany who should not have permanent residency. This is consensus in the coalition that we need to deport more people,” he said. “But we make a careful distinction between those who work in Germany, who contribute to our prosperity, and who are welcome here, and those who do not have permanent residency in Germany and who must leave our country. Unlike [AfD], we take great care to make this distinction.”

The chancellor specifically warned that a mass deportation agenda would wreck entire industries in Germany propped up by foreign labor, claiming that “the skilled trades in Germany will no longer be able to function: not a single care home will remain open, not a single hospital in Germany will remain operational, and not a single restaurant in Germany will be able to stay in business.”

AfD leader Alice Weidel dismissed Merz as an establishment bureaucrat unwilling to address the German public’s demands for radical change in immigration policy.

“The voters in Saxony-Anhalt have made it absolutely clear to you, in the language of democratic choice: black-red is over,” she said, referencing the colors associated with the CDU and Social Democrats.

“German citizens have to live with the daily consequences of mass migration,” Weidel contended. “With knife violence every day, attacks on trains and in stations, with run-down and threatening cityscapes.”

Merz’s frustration with AfD seems to be now bleeding into his foreign relations, particularly as Trump celebrates the right-wing party’s rise. The chancellor postponed a phone call with Trump scheduled for Wednesday, following a Tuesday post on Truth Social in which Trump congratulated “the populist party in Germany” for its “really big night.”

Federal chairwoman and parliamentary group leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, opens the general debate as part of the budget deliberations in the Bundestag, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting in the background, in Berlin, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026 (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

“They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly,” Trump said, tagging the post with “MGGA” — an acronym for “Make Germany Great Again.”

A spokesman for Merz did not say the decision to postpone his call was due to the post, but noted that the chancellor has always “in general terms” objected to foreign leaders “interfering in or commenting on the domestic political situation, particularly regarding elections.”

Merz is not the only CDU politician panicking after the Saxony-Anhalt election. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare appearance at the Deutsche Telekom Digital X trade fair on Tuesday, where she told attendees that the election results were “simply shocking.”

TRUMP LAUDS FAR-RIGHT GERMAN AFD PARTY AFTER ELECTION WIN: ‘THEY ARE ON THE RISE’

“As a CDU member, my heart bleeds,” Merkel said. “This is a cut, a real cut in modern German history that we’re experiencing.”

AfD officials and voters widely despise Merkel due to her role in promoting mass immigration, rolling out an open-door refugee policy in 2015.

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