AfD leads Saxony-Anhalt polls as Merz warns of harm

The AfD is leading opinion polls in Saxony-Anhalt before a state election, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned on Sunday that a far-right state government would damage the eastern German region.

Merz told ARD broadcaster that he could not imagine international investors wanting to break ground on a new factory alongside an AfD state premier. He said voters had to make the decision and that his CDU would use the last week of campaigning to do everything it could to prevent an AfD government.

A poll published on Friday put the AfD on 40 percent and the CDU on 23 percent among the state's voters. Saxony-Anhalt is currently governed by Merz's centre-right CDU in coalition with the Social Democrats and the liberal FDP.

The AfD gaining power at state level for the first time would give the party wide-ranging powers under Germany's federal system in areas including health, education, immigration and security policy.

Merz said Saxony-Anhalt's governability was at risk and acknowledged that his party faced difficult conditions in the state. Other parties have so far maintained a firewall against cooperation with the AfD.

If the AfD fails to win an outright majority, the CDU may try to form a government with parties to its left, such as the SPD and the Greens. Such an arrangement would likely need support from the far-left Linke party, with which the CDU has also pledged not to cooperate.