Merkel says 'heart bleeds' after AfD's historic win in Saxony-Anhalt
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock and dismay after the far-right AfD won a historic 43.8% of votes in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, while her CDU party saw its support halve. Speaking at the Digital X tech fair in Cologne, Merkel said her "heart bleeds" as a CDU member and called the result a genuine turning point in German history. She also issued unusually sharp criticism of her own party's strategy, particularly its "firewall" slogan against the AfD. Merkel argued politicians must engage voters directly rather than rely on slogans, and warned that AfD's dominance in social media, which plays on emotions over facts, represents a civilizational step backward if feelings take precedence over objective truth.