Alternative for Germany came first in Saxony-Anhalt state elections over the weekend, far ahead of the Christian Democrats, with every other party well behind. Chancellor Friedrich Merz later called the AfD plan to require unauthorized residents to leave a campaign to clear people out by race and origin. He also said those departures would make German society collapse and told AfD lawmakers they belong to the country’s problems, which his side will fight with every available means.

Andreas Rödder, a modern-history professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and a CDU member, said the AfD migration stance can be opposed without matching historic group expulsions that always used force. Michael Wolffsohn, professor emeritus at Bundeswehr University in Munich, said no evidence shows AfD figures would mount violent attacks on particular groups if they governed, so the charge does not apply, and extra heat should not be added to politics now.