Shock, awe and fear filled the haggard face of Friedrich Merz on Monday.

The 70-year-old German chancellor is no novice but he hung his shaking head, struggling to comprehend the causes and consequences of Sunday evening’s political earthquake.

As cameras rolled, Merz acknowledged that Germany was on course to elect its first far-right extremist leader since May 1945.

Sunday’s landslide for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt – almost 44 per cent with 76 per cent turnout – was, he said, an “existential shock” for the country, his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – and for him.

What’s more, he warned that the clock is ticking to save Germany’s postwar constitutional order.

“This is the worst for defeat for the CDU in years, decades and something has changed, not just in Saxony-Anhalt but in all of Germany,” he said.

The man who took office just over a year ago with a promise to “halve” the AfD’s political support, instead looked on as the 13-year-old AfD did the very same, in real time, to his 81-year-old political home.

The full weight of the drama hit home 12 hours previously in Saxony-Anhalt’s capital Magdeburg, 200km southwest of Berlin.

Around midnight, when AfD revellers learned their election night venue had run dry – 250 litres of beer later – they headed across town to crash the more glum CDU party.

Drinking the beer of their vanquished rivals, AfD supporters posted clips of themselves on social media, singing: “This is what victors look like.”

While they nursed hangovers on Monday morning, AfD leaders wafted into a Berlin press conference perfumed with the sweet smell of electoral success.

The final result pegged the AfD result at 43.8 per cent, up 23 points on the 2021 state poll but three seats short of a majority.

Victorious AfD Saxony-Anhalt leader Ulrich Siegmund said the work to elect him prime minister had already begun. Either they would lure over renegade MPs, he said, or strike strategic deals with smaller parties.

“This historic election is not only decisive for Saxony-Anhalt, but for Germany,” said the 35-year-old, a trained scent specialist turned politician. It was a victory “by the people, for the people” and on he vowed to help “sweep through all the federal states”.

Overnight, Siegmund exchanged flattering social media messages with billionaire Elon Musk and predicted Germany’s next chancellor would be the woman sitting beside him: Alice Weidel, AfD national co-leader.

She attributed her party’s success to an energetic campaign, voter mobilisation – including 140,000 non-voters – as well as a highly unpopular federal government.

Post-election analysis found the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt enjoys above-average support in all age groups from 35 to 69-year-olds and is considerably more popular among men (50 per cent) than women (39 per cent). Just 18 women will sit in the new parliamentary part, alongside 65 men.

Party support is a class and education issue, too, with just 30 per cent of voters with degrees backing the party. Support rose to 57 per cent with basic school-leaver qualifications.

Some 59 per cent of working class voters gave their vote to the AfD, and the party enjoys strong support, too, among firm owners (52 per cent).

The largest single voter group – 65 per cent – was voters who perceived their financial situation as “weak”. That chimed with another post-election poll finding that the main point of concern for 70 per cent of voters was the cost of living and related fears over social status.

On Monday, the likelihood of the first AfD-led federal state triggered alarm bells in all corners of German society.

Economist Clemens Fuest, head of Munich’s renowned Ifo Institute, said an AfD-lead Saxony-Anhalt could expect lower levels of foreign investment.

“In a democracy,” he told Capital magazine, “voters also have the right to vote for economic decline.”

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Catholic archbishop of Munich, called the result “terrible and depressing” while prominent Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch said she “couldn’t have imagined this result in my worst nightmares”.

“I’ll say it straight out: it scares me,” said the 93-year-old.

Fear was palpable across the board in political Berlin on Monday. The poll was another wipeout for the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), ejected from the Bundestag last year.

Back at CDU headquarters, party grandees engaged in what one called a “robust exchange of views” but they did not repeat rank-and-file party member demands for Friedrich Merz to consider his position.

Facing the press, the CDU leader said he would stand behind his government’s unpopular social and economic reforms.

Asked to explain his party’s slump to 17.8 per cent, Merz conceded the CDU had lost credibility with many voters by running on an austerity ticket in the February 2025 federal election, only to perform a post-poll U-turn on borrowing to boost economic and defence spending.

To an international audience, Merz insisted that Germany’s political institutions and constitution were “well-fortified” and that Sunday’s result would do nothing to alter Berlin’s migration policy or its support for Ukraine – opposed bitterly by the pro-Russian AfD.

“Giving up is not an option for me,” said Merz, promising instead a more emotional and empathetic narrative to explain his policies. “We have to get better together.”