Merkel Ally Resigns as Saxony’s Leader After Losses to AfD
- Anti-immigration party won state in last month’s national vote
- German chancellor’s ruling CDU struggles in key eastern region
State Premier for the federal state of Saxony Stanislaw Tillich delivers a statement to resign at the State chancellery in Dresden, eastern Germany, on Oct. 18.
Photographer: Sebastian Kahnert/AFP via Getty ImagesAn ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said he’s resigning as state leader of Saxony after an anti-immigration party beat her once-dominant Christian Democratic Union in the region in last month’s national election.
Stanislaw Tillich, 58, who has governed Saxony since 2008, said “new answers” are needed in the eastern state, which is a bastion of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD. The party, which campaigns against Merkel’s open-borders refugee policy, took 27 percent of the state’s vote to the CDU’s 26.9 percent. Tillich plans to hand over in December to the state CDU’s general secretary, Michael Kretschmer.