German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has clashed with AfD leader Alice Weidel in parliament, calling her party a “destructive force” with a migration policy that amounts to “ethnic cleansing” for skilled workers.
Merz was addressing the Bundestag in the aftermath of the anti-immigration party’s sweeping victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt where it won almost 44% of the vote, while the chancellor’s conservatives saw their vote halved.
Weidel told MPs that voters had shown that Merz’s coalition with the centre left was a total failure and his time was up.
