Germany's Merz attacks AfD in stormy debate after far-right election win

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.

Merz hit back saying the AfD had harmed German interests by backing Russia, and its "remigration" policy would affect millions.

It is not yet clear whether the party will be able to form a government or not in Saxony-Anhalt, having fallen three seats short of an outright majority. No far-right party has won power in any of Germany's 16 states since World War Two, and Merz has admitted the "seismic" result has changed Germany.

The AfD's success has been praised by US President Donald Trump, who said "the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night", linking the victory to "absolutely horrible immigration rules and regulations".

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been labelled as "right-wing extremist" by German domestic intelligence and the party has promised a "deportation and remigration" offensive targeting irregular migrants.

Repeatedly heckled by AfD MPs, the chancellor told Weidel that one in six skilled workers had a migration background, and if her party had its way then its policy would amount to "nothing other than an ethnic cleansing in the skilled trades based on skin colour and origin".