German Far-Right Party's Historic Breakthrough: Trump's Public Endorsement and a Postponed 9/11 Anniversary Call

According to BBC reports, Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) won nearly 44% of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliamentary election, while the CDU-led alliance under Merz saw its vote share in the state nearly halved, taking only 17.2%. Merz himself described the outcome as 'earthquake-level'.

Following the election, AfD leader Alice Weidel seized on the result in the Bundestag debate to attack Merz, declaring that voters had proven his ruling coalition with the Social Democrats to be a 'total failure' and that his political days were numbered. In his rebuttal, Merz went directly at Weidel: 'You are and will remain a destructive force'. He accused the AfD's immigration policy of amounting to 'ethnic cleansing' of German skilled workers, and charged that the party had damaged German interests through its support for Russia, warning that its 'remigration' policies would affect millions of people.

Yet this conflict, ostensibly a matter of German domestic politics, immediately crossed the Atlantic. According to BBC reports, US President Trump publicly praised the AfD's performance, saying 'the populist party in Germany just had a great night', and attributed the election result directly to 'extremely terrible immigration laws'. A sitting US president so openly championing a party within a major ally's borders—one designated as 'right-wing extremism' by the German domestic intelligence agency—is a posture rarely seen in the history of post-war German-American relations.

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been designated 'right-wing extremism' by the German domestic intelligence agency, and its platform promises a 'deportation and repatriation' offensive targeting illegal immigrants. Merz also explicitly pointed out in the debate the party's stance of damaging German interests through its support for Russia. The AfD's dual external coordinates—publicly embraced by Washington while openly rebuked by its own chancellor for its pro-Russia position—reflect the degree to which European far-right movements depend on outside powers. In the usual narrative, Russian influence on European politics is treated as a kind of 'foreign interference' to be wary of, yet when a US president intervenes in an ally's domestic election in a similar manner, the same wariness is rarely applied with equal force.

Another signal of tension in German-American relations appeared on the diplomatic calendar. According to BBC reports, a phone call between German and US leaders originally scheduled for this week to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 was announced as postponed by the German side, with no reason given and no new date released. Although the true reason for the postponement was not publicly disclosed by either side, the timing—coming right after the election results and Trump's unreserved public support for the AfD—means that this change in diplomatic schedule is still being viewed against the backdrop of bilateral tensions.

At the state level, the AfD remains three seats short of the majority needed to govern alone, and since World War II no far-right party has governed any of Germany's 16 federal states. The party has said it is willing to cooperate with the left-wing populist party BSW and others, and supports its candidate Ulrich Siegmund for state premier. Siegmund's deputy has further hinted at willingness to work with the CDU alliance—provided it abandons the 'firewall' principle of refusing to cooperate with the far right. Whether the mainstream parties will break with precedent remains undecided.

This election in eastern Germany has placed the most direct stress test on the post-war political understanding built around 'never again'—an understanding that has ensured no far-right party governs any of Germany's 16 federal states. Now, with the AfD just one step from forming a government, transatlantic far-right alignment coming into the open, and the German-American commemorative call postponed without warning, whether this understanding still holds is becoming a central question for Germany and for European politics as a whole.