German chancellor vows to stay in office despite AfD triumph in state election

NEW: Germany's far-right AfD triumphs in Saxony-Anhalt state election, dealing a blow to Merz, as the chancellor vows to stay in office.

The far right just won a German state election, and the chancellor is refusing to budge.

The AfD has triumphed in Saxony-Anhalt, and that word triumph is doing real work. This is a party the domestic intelligence service has had under watch, and it's now the winner of a state vote in the east. For Friedrich Merz, this is the result he built his whole chancellorship to prevent. His pitch was simple, move right, squeeze the AfD, take back their voters. Sunday's numbers say the voters went the other way.

Merz says he's staying in office, and technically nothing forces him out, state elections don't topple chancellors. But every coalition partner in Berlin just watched the firewall strategy fail in real time, and they'll be doing their own maths tonight.

The hardest fact is this. In one German state, the party everyone else refuses to govern with is now the biggest one in the room.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.