BERLIN — A leader of Alternative for Germany taunted Chancellor Friedrich Merz in parliament Wednesday after it thrashed his party in a regional election. The German leader countered that the far-right party won’t win a majority in the country, assailing its stance toward Ukraine and rhetoric on migration.

Merz is under pressure after Alternative for Germany, or AfD, surged to its biggest win yet in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, while the chancellor’s center-right Christian Democratic Union lost about half its support in the election.

The result underlined AfD’s skill in harnessing discontent with issues well beyond its core theme of curbing immigration as an unpopular national government struggles to turn around a stubbornly sluggish economy.

Two more states are scheduled to hold elections on Sept. 20: Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an eastern state where AfD is strong but Merz’s CDU has long been weak.

AfD’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, told Merz as she opened the annual budget debate in parliament that “in Saxony-Anhalt, people didn’t just punish you, they pulverized your party.”

“You haven’t understood the message that voters in Saxony-Anhalt sent you on Sunday,” she said. “But that isn’t relevant because your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy and they will get it.”

Weidel predicted future elections will produce “a clear mandate to govern” for her party.

A combative Merz responded that AfD’s state election result was “remarkable” but noted the party said during the campaign it would only govern with an absolute majority and then missed that target.

Voters “gave us, me as well, a clear message. But you don’t have the absolute majority, and you won’t achieve it in Germany. You won’t get majorities anywhere in Germany with these policies,” Merz said. “You are, and remain, Ms. Weidel, a destructive force.”

Merz pointed toward Weidel’s comments on Ukraine. AfD opposes aid to the country and advocates lifting sanctions against Russia.

“While the U.S. is making another attempt to end the murderous Ukraine war, you are stepping up the war propaganda and the confrontation with Russia, and burning the last bridges to distract from your own disastrous political record,” Weidel told Merz.

The chancellor vowed Germany will continue supporting Ukraine, and told AfD lawmakers that “your reactions only show that you obviously intend to continue the downright grotesque inversion of perpetrator and victim.”

He said “you clearly continue to stand by Russia when it comes to defending our freedom,” and noted Weidel didn’t mention an attempted drone attack at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle airport, which the government last week blamed on Russia.

Merz, whose government has moved to toughen migration policy, also attacked AfD’s use of the politically charged term “remigration” while pushing for more deportations.

“The word ‘remigration’ is nothing but a synonym for ethnic cleansing according to origin and skin color,” Merz told lawmakers, contending that implementing it would mean hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and many businesses would be unable to work.

“That we must deport more is a consensus in the (governing) coalition,” Merz said, but it differentiates between people who work and are welcome in Germany and those who don’t have a right to residence.

AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt was applauded by far-right parties across Europe. It also caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Tuesday.

“They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly,” Trump added, without mentioning the party by name. “THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore!”