German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has clashed with AfD leader Alice Weidel in parliament, calling her party a “destructive force” with a migration policy that amounts to “ethnic cleansing” for skilled workers.

Merz was addressing the Bundestag in the aftermath of the anti-immigration party’s sweeping victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt where it won almost 44% of the vote, while the chancellor’s conservatives saw their vote halved.

Weidel told MPs that voters had shown that Merz’s coalition with the centre left was a total failure and his time was up.

Merz hit back saying the AfD had harmed German interests by backing Russia, and its “remigration” policy would affect millions.

It is not yet clear whether the party will be able to form a government or not in Saxony-Anhalt, having fallen three seats short of an outright majority. No far-right party has won power in any of Germany’s 16 states since World War Two, and Merz has admitted the “seismic” result has changed Germany.

The AfD’s success has been praised by US President Donald Trump, who said “the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night”, linking the victory to “absolutely horrible immigration rules and regulations”.

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has been labelled as “right-wing extremist” by German domestic intelligence and the party has promised a “deportation and remigration” offensive targeting irregular migrants.

Trump had been due to speak by phone to the German chancellor on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US, but the government spokesman in Berlin said the call had been postponed without saying why. No new date has been set.

Repeatedly heckled by AfD MPs, the chancellor told Weidel that one in six skilled workers had a migration background, and if her party had its way then its policy would amount to “nothing other than an ethnic cleansing in the skilled trades based on skin colour and origin”.

While the government understood some deportations were needed, he said it made a careful distinction between those who contributed to German prosperity and those without permanent residency.

Disruption by AfD MPs became so loud that at one point Bundestag President Julia Klöckner threatened to start expelling people from the chamber: “We are not on a football pitch.”

Weidel said mass migration had left Germans with daily knife violence and attacks on trains and in stations, but Merz warned that the AfD’s plans would mean that no single care home, hospital or restaurant could function.

As leader of the main opposition party in the Bundestag, Weidel opened the session by telling Merz his Christian Democrats had been “pulverised” in Saxony-Anhalt, after winning 17.2% of the vote, and she accused his government with the Social Democrats of driving Germany towards bankruptcy.

Merz said her party had not won an outright majority in Saxony-Anhalt and it would not achieve one in Germany.

“You are and will remain a destructive force,” he said, accusing the party of cheating the voters by saying before the election that their candidate for premier, Ulrich Siegmund, would only rule if he won a majority, but hours after the vote deciding to go and find one.

The AfD has opened the door to working with another party, perhaps the left-wing populist BSW, as long as it backs Siegmund to be state premier.

Siegmund’s number two in Saxony-Anhalt, has even suggested that Merz’s CDU could work with his party, if it abandons the so-called firewall (Brandmauer), under which no mainstream party will work with the far right.

Namibia on Wednesday called for innovative green financing to support industrialisation, job creation and expanded electricity access as the country seeks to meet its development targets by 2030.

Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy, Modestus Amutse, said “green finance should go beyond funding environmentally friendly projects and help build the country’s productive capacity”.

He made the statement at the opening of the Second International Conference on Finance and Sustainable Business in Windhoek, held under Namibia’s Sixth National Development Plan (NDP6).

The country aims to achieve an economic growth rate of at least seven per cent and an employment rate of 75 per cent by 2030.

It also seeks to increase manufacturing’s contribution to gross domestic product from 10.6 per cent to 18 per cent and raise electricity access from 59.3 per cent to 70 per cent.

Amutse said achieving those targets would require a range of financing instruments, including grants, concessional and blended finance, guarantees and patient capital, tailored to projects at different stages of development.

He said “a just transition cannot end where creditworthiness ends,” and called for financing models that can reach rural households, informal businesses and other underserved groups.

Amutse said Namibia should also derive greater value from its critical mineral resources through domestic processing and beneficiation rather than remaining primarily a supplier of raw materials to global markets.

Developing mineral value chains would require coordinated investment in electricity, water, logistics, laboratories and specialised skills, as well as closer cooperation among authorities responsible for mining, energy, water, industrial policy and finance, he said.

He added that emerging sectors including green hydrogen, renewable energy and petroleum should contribute to skills development, infrastructure and broader economic diversification.

The two-day conference, hosted by the Namibia University of Science and Technology, brings together researchers, policymakers, industry experts and other stakeholders to discuss green finance and sustainable business models.

British, French, and Canadian leaders have affirmed their “commitment to protect the two-state solution” in the face of the “systematic expansion” of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in the joint statement that, “A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical for peace, stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.

They further emphasised that settlements “pose a direct and urgent threat to that vision for peace,

“Settlements are illegal under international law,” they said, condemning the Israeli government’s latest decision to progress the E1 settlement, and the “dramatic increase in settler violence.

The three countries will therefore ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them, according to the joint statement.

The three leaders also reiterated their desire for a close and productive partnership with Israel. “We support a safe and secure Israel, living alongside a safe and secure Palestine,” they said.