Merz ‘shocked’ by AfD win but refuses to change course (VIDEO)

The German chancellor has called the conservative right-wing party an enemy of the rule of law while doubling down on unpopular policies German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has blamed his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party’s crushing defeat by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt on poor communication with voters, while refusing to change course.Merz, who has been described as Germany’s least popular head of government in some 30 years, maintained he would not budge an inch on his “reform” agenda following what he called his party’s “most serious electoral defeat in decades.”The AfD took 43.8% of the vote in the eastern German state over the weekend, coming close to securing an absolute majority in the regional legislature. The conservative CDU, which has dominated Saxony-Anhalt’s political landscape for much of the period since German reunification, finished a distant second with 17.5%.Ahead of the vote, a regional party official told Euractiv that the CDU branch in Saxony-Anhalt was being forced to pay the price for the deeply unpopular policies of the federal government. Speaking at a press conference following the election, Merz said he and other senio...