The Alternative for Germany appealed on Monday to lawmakers from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives to support its ​bid to rule Saxony-Anhalt after the far-right party surged into first place in the eastern German state's election.

Béla Anda, chief spokesman for the federal government under Gerhard Schröder, says it will be “very hard” for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to regain control after the AfD’s landslide victory in regional elections.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government will have to learn the lessons from an overwhelming victory by the far right in a state election that he said will alter the country’s politics.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doubled down Monday on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy after a far-right party surged to a landslide victory in a regional election, with a very good chance of forming the first far-right state government since the Nazi era.

The overwhelming victory of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt has heralded the end of the national government coalition led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz,

Germany's leader ruled out working with the far-right Alternative for Germany party but he conceded the result had shaken his party "to its very foundations".

The Alternative for Germany result is the closest a far-right party has come to holding power at state level in Germany since World War II.

Results show the Alternative for Germany well ahead of rivals. Now other parties must decide whether to let it govern.

Germany’s ruling conservative party is drawing up plans to overhaul the country’s liberal citizenship laws to fight back against the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a warning that an election victory by Germany’s far right in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt would deter foreign business. But no voters were on hand to hear him.

A member of Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has broken rank to call for the chancellor’s resignation.