German far-right party taunts chancellor after its election triumph. He says it won't win a majority

BERLIN -- A leader of Alternative for Germany taunted Chancellor Friedrich Merz in parliament Wednesday after it thrashed his party in a regional election. The German leader countered that the far-right party won't win a majority in the country, assailing its stance toward Ukraine and rhetoric on migration.Merz is under pressure after Alternative for Germany, or AfD, surged to its biggest win yet in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, while the chancellor's center-right Christian Democratic Union lost about half its support in the election. The result underlined AfD's skill in harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its core theme of curbing immigration as an unpopular national government struggles to turn around a stubbornly sluggish economy. Two more states are scheduled to hold elections on Sept. 20: Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an eastern state where AfD is strong but Merz's CDU has long been weak.AfD's national co-leader, Alice Weidel, told Merz as she opened the annual budget debate in parliament that “in Saxony-Anhalt, people didn't just punish you, they pulverized your party.” “You haven't understood the message that voters in Saxony-Anhalt sent...