# Merz and Weidel Clash in Bundestag Days After AfD's Saxony-Anhalt Win > Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused the AfD of pushing a policy amounting to ethnic cleansing, while co-leader Alice Weidel declared his coalition's days numbered, in a chaotic Bundestag session that laid bare how sharply Berlin's political mood has shifted since the far right's breakthrough election win. - Source: Berlin Today - Canonical URL: https://berlintoday.eu/article/merz-and-weidel-clash-in-bundestag-days-after-afd-s-saxony-anhalt-win - Author: Doug Brown - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-09-11T07:57:00.130Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T07:57:00.130Z - Tags: Germany, Bundestag, Friedrich Merz, Alice Weidel, AfD, Saxony-Anhalt, Ukraine, politics --- Germany's Bundestag turned into the scene of an unusually bitter exchange this week, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Alternative for Germany co-leader Alice Weidel traded pointed attacks just days after the AfD's commanding victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election. The clash centered on the AfD's push for mass deportations under the banner of what the party calls remigration. Merz used unusually blunt language to condemn the policy, describing it as amounting to ethnic cleansing based on skin color and origin, a characterization that immediately set the tone for a combative session. ## Weidel Fires Back Taking the lectern, Weidel dismissed Merz's coalition as finished, telling the chamber that its time was over and that voters wanted a genuine change of political direction rather than a continuation of business as usual. Her remarks framed the AfD's state level win as evidence of a broader national shift rather than a one off regional result. The exchange grew heated enough that AfD lawmakers repeatedly heckled from their seats, prompting Bundestag President Julia Klöckner to warn that further disruption could see members removed from the chamber, reminding lawmakers pointedly that parliament was not a football pitch. ## Ukraine Enters the Fight The confrontation spilled over into foreign policy, with Weidel accusing Merz of ramping up war propaganda over Ukraine even as, in her telling, the United States was working to bring the conflict to an end. Merz rejected the characterization and reaffirmed that Germany would continue supporting Ukraine, drawing a clear line between his government's position and the AfD's more conciliatory stance toward Moscow. That exchange echoed the foreign policy tension the AfD has faced nationally, caught between courting voters sympathetic to Russia and trying not to appear entirely at odds with Washington under the current US administration. ## Why It Matters The scale of the rhetoric on both sides reflects how quickly the stakes have risen since the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt breakthrough. Merz's ethnic cleansing framing signals that the governing coalition intends to confront the AfD's migration platform in the starkest possible terms rather than treat it as a normal policy disagreement, while Weidel's defiant tone suggests the party sees its state level win as license to press its case even harder in Berlin. With the AfD no longer a purely marginal opposition voice in at least one German state, sessions like this one are likely to become more frequent, and more heated, as the party's national ambitions collide directly with a governing coalition determined to hold the line against it. --- Originally published by Berlin Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://berlintoday.eu/article/merz-and-weidel-clash-in-bundestag-days-after-afd-s-saxony-anhalt-win.