AfD demands Merz travel to Moscow — Kremlin approves

After two consecutive victories in regional elections, the German party Alternative for Germany demanded that Chancellor Friedrich Merz begin direct negotiations with Moscow.

The Kremlin responded with approval.

At a press conference in Berlin on Monday, September 21, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla said that German voters had sent a clear signal.

“They want Friedrich Merz to finally go to Moscow and hold talks there — to break this spiral of escalation and the arms race,” Chrupalla was quoted as saying by the Anadolu agency.

Chrupalla also added that Germany’s sanctions policy toward Russia “has damaged above all the German economy itself.”

Party co-leader Alice Weidel backed the call, saying that “it is important for us to open a channel of communication with the Russian side — together with the Americans.” According to her, both Washington and Moscow have concluded that the AfD is “the only remaining reliable partner in Germany.”

The statements came the day after the AfD’s victory in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament elections, where the party won 38.2% of the vote and for the first time overtook the Social Democrats in this northeastern federal state. Merz’s Christian Democratic Union collapsed below 5% and lost all its seats in the regional parliament. This result was preceded by the AfD’s record victory in Saxony-Anhalt two weeks earlier, where the party won 43.8%.

The Kremlin was quick to comment. On Tuesday, September 22, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that he had no information about any attempts by the AfD to establish direct contacts with Moscow, but that the party’s course itself met with approval.

“The AfD is a political force in Germany that is currently popular, showing steady growth, and is speaking about the advisability of establishing relations with our country — we cannot but welcome this,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Peskov contrasted the AfD’s position with what he called Merz’s “confrontational statements” toward Russia. Reuters reported last week that preparations had begun for a meeting between AfD leaders and Vladimir Putin’s adviser Kirill Dmitriev to discuss resuming Russian gas supplies to Germany.

The electoral losses have increased pressure on Merz, who frames the rise of the AfD as a threat to Western values. After the September elections in Saxony-Anhalt, he entered into an open confrontation with Weidel in parliament, calling her party “a destructive force,” and warned that abandoning support for Ukraine “would mean a threat to the freedom of all of Europe.”

Despite the AfD’s rapid rise, its path to power remains limited. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the SPD, the Left, and the Greens together hold enough seats to form a majority without the AfD. State Premier Manuela Schwesig said she was prepared to continue in her post.