German Chancellor Friedrich Merz cancelled a planned phone call with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in what is widely seen as a direct response to Trump's public celebration of a regional election victory by Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. A government spokesperson confirmed the cancellation but offered no official reason, while pointedly noting it was not due to scheduling conflicts — a signal that the cause lay elsewhere.
The call had been arranged to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and carried broader symbolic weight for transatlantic relations. Its cancellation came hours after Trump posted on his Truth Social platform praising the AfD's strong performance in elections in Saxony-Anhalt, a state in eastern Germany. "Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night," Trump wrote, closing his message with the abbreviation "MGGA" — an apparent reference to "Make Germany Great Again," a variation of his trademark campaign slogan. The AfD, a nationalist, anti-immigration party that intelligence services have formally designated a "proven far-right" organisation, secured roughly 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, dealing a heavy blow to Merz's own conservative CDU party, which had previously governed the state.
The German government's transatlantic coordinator, Metin Hakverdi, pushed back sharply against Trump's comments. "We Germans decide for ourselves how we deal with migration and who we vote for," he told a German newspaper. "We don't need advice from the White House." Senior SPD parliamentarian Dirk Wiese went further, calling Trump's intervention unacceptable foreign interference and drawing a pointed comparison: if Berlin were to publicly celebrate a Democratic governor's win in a US state election, he suggested, Trump's reaction would be fierce.
Merz himself had already spent much of Wednesday on the offensive against the AfD. In a heated parliamentary debate in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, he accused the party of siding with Russia over German national interests and condemned its promotion of so-called "remigration" — a term used by the party's more radical wing to describe the mass deportation of immigrants and their descendants, including naturalised German citizens. "If what is being advocated here were to become reality, it would be nothing other than ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin colour," Merz said. The AfD denied misrepresentation, saying its policies were within the law.
The episode reflects deepening tensions between Berlin and Washington over the Trump administration's repeated expressions of sympathy for the AfD, which advocates warmer ties with Russia. It also underscores the political pressures Merz faces at home: his government's electoral defeat in Saxony-Anhalt and his own low approval ratings have prompted questions about his leadership, though he has ruled out resignation. For Germany and its allies, the incident raises uncomfortable questions about how Western democracies navigate relations with a White House that openly intervenes in their domestic politics.