Germany: Merkel rules out coalition with far-right AfD

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) has ruled out forming a coalition government with the far-right AfD in the eastern state of Saxony.

CDU party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told a news conference in Berlin that her party would continue to distance itself from the AfD after Sunday's election.

“There will be no coalition government with the AfD,” she stressed.

CDU state premier of Saxony Michael Kretschmer told reporters that the Christian Democrats would try to build a three-way coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.

Despite their heavy losses, the Christian Democrats won Sunday’s election in Saxony with 32.1 % of the vote.

The far-right AfD achieved its best ever result by securing 27.5 % of the vote and becoming the second biggest party in the state parliament of Saxony.