By Andreas Rinke and Kirsti Knolle
BERLIN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused the Alternative for Germany on Wednesday of supporting Russia against Germany's interests and advocating anti-migration policies that were tantamount to "ethnic cleansing".
Merz was addressing the German parliament following his party's bruising defeat against the AfD, which surged to victory in an election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on a platform to curb migration and restore ties with Moscow.
In an email to Reuters, the AfD said Merz was deliberately mischaracterising its position as a way of demonizing the party, and said its policies were legal.
Merz is trying to regain the initiative after Sunday's election loss and his own record-low approval ratings put his position and his government's reform programme in question. He has brushed off suggestions that he might resign.
"If what is being advocated here, namely 'remigration', were to become reality, it would be nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin colour," Merz said, in answer to an earlier speech by AfD co-leader Alice Weidel.
Merz also took aim at the AfD's calls for ending support for Ukraine, accusing the party of being "steadfastly on Russia’s side" even after a planned drone attack at a German airport last month that Merz said was carried out by Moscow. Russia denies this.
AfD HITS BACK AT MERZ
The AfD has been classified as right-wing extremist by the local office of Germany's domestic intelligence service. In its election programme in Saxony-Anhalt, it advocated for "remigration" policies to speed up deportations of rejected asylum seekers and foreign criminals and incentivise people to leave voluntarily.
It also wants the children of refugees to be taught in segregated classes.
"By ‘remigration,’ the AfD means the consistent deportation - in accordance with the law - of all foreigners required to leave the country; nothing else. Chancellor Merz knows this, too," AfD lawmaker Bernd Baumann said in an email to Reuters.
"Nevertheless, attributing ethnic cleansing to the AfD as a political goal is a desperate and sordid attempt to maintain a ‘firewall’ through fabricated demonization."
Merz said forcing migrants to leave would create a skill shortage that would backfire.
"Not a single nursing home will function. Not a single hospital in Germany will remain operational, and not a single restaurant will be able to stay in business - that would be the result of their remigration policy," he said.
AFD RULE IN SAXONY-ANHALT STILL UNCERTAIN
Many representatives of minority groups have expressed alarm over the rise of the AfD.
Eva Umlauf, a survivor of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, told Reuters she was "appalled" by Sunday's election result.
The AfD, founded as a eurosceptic party during the euro zone crisis in 2013, rejects comparisons with the Nazi Party. However, opponents accuse the party of downplaying Germany's Nazi past, pointing to a comment by one of its leaders in 2018 who described the period as "just bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history".
Three days on from the election, it was still not clear who would form a government in Saxony-Anhalt. While the AfD won most votes, it fell short of a majority.
Mainstream parties refuse to go into coalition with the AfD in a policy known as the "firewall", but the AfD could come to an arrangement with a small leftist party that shares its hostility to mass immigration.
In another line of attack, Merz accused the AfD of breaking its word that it would only govern if it won an absolute majority.
"You failed to achieve your actual electoral goal of securing a majority of seats in Saxony-Anhalt," Merz said. "56% of voters in Saxony-Anhalt did not vote for you," he added.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Kirsti Knolle, Ludwig Burger, Matthias Williams; writing by Matthias Williams and Toby Chopra)
