Germany’s Chancellor Merz: When 60 percent of voters in a federal state, with a very high voter turnout, vote for political parties that fundamentally call into question the democratic institutions and rules of our country, then this is an election result that we cannot simply move past and return to business as usual. This does something to us — and to me personally as well. And I have to admit: this is the most serious electoral defeat the CDU has suffered in years, even in decades. All of this will, of course, have to have consequences.