Merz says Russia is undermining Germany's democracy 'daily', accuses AfD and Left of downplaying threat

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday 17 October that the threat from Russia is real, and accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left party of “downplaying the situation”.

“What we are witnessing from Russia is a daily undermining of our democracy, our values, and our way of life. And we are fighting back against it now,” Merz told the national congress of the Junge Union, the youth wing of his Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, in Bonn, Anadolu Agency reported.

On Ukraine, he said: “We must not leave this country and its people to fend for themselves. And we will not do so.”

His remarks follow a warning by Martin Jäger, president of the BND foreign intelligence service, that Moscow now treats Berlin as a main adversary, according to Anadolu.

Merz also defended his push for economic and welfare reforms, saying the party would not “stand a chance” at the next federal election unless the economy was growing again and the welfare system reformed, DW reported.

The AfD leads national polling at 29%, ahead of Merz’s CDU/CSU at 18%, according to an INSA poll for Bild.

The reports reviewed for this story did not include a Kremlin response to Merz’s remarks.