
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has warned Chancellor Angela Merkel that they will put a stop to what they call an 'invasion of foreigners', after becoming the third largest party in parliament last night.

The anti-immigration AfD won 12.6 per cent in an election which saw both Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her coalition partners hemorrhaging millions of voters to the far-right.

However the AfD's celebrations came to an abrupt end on Monday morning when one of their leaders announced that she was refusing to join them in parliament.

Frauke Petry, co-leader of AfD, stormed out of a news conference after saying she would take up her seat but would not be part of AfD's parliamentary group.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel shakes hands with her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party's secretary general Peter Tauber as they arrive for a meeting in Berlin one day after general elections

You can't sit with us! AfD co-leader Frauke Petry storms out of a press conference after announcing that she will serve as an MP but not sit with her party in parliament

Anger: Opponents of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) protest against the result of the AfD after reaching a better-than-expected 13 per cent and third place finish in German federal elections

'I've decided I won't be part of the AfD's group in the German parliament but will initially be an individual member of parliament in the lower house,' Petry said.

Petry branded the AfD an 'anarchistic party' that could be successful in opposition but would not be able to offer voters a credible option as a government. For this reason, she had decided not to take up her seat as part of the AfD group.

She declined to answer further questions, including whether she would remain the AfD's co-leader, but said the public would hear from her in the coming days.

Alexander Gauland, one of the AfD's top candidates, said neither he, nor the other top candidate Alice Weidel nor co-leader Joerg Meuthen knew why Petry left.

Speaking during the conference, Mr Gauland said the one million refugees and migrants who have entered Germany since 2015 were 'taking a way a piece of this country'.

Alexander Gauland, one of the AfD's top candidates, said the one million refugees and migrants who have entered Germany since 2015 were 'taking a way a piece of this country'

The German Green party was among the first to react to the AfP's gains, accusing the country of failing to learn from its Nazi past. Jewish groups from around the world also expressed concern

Marchers in Berlin who had been gathered in a public square moved to surround the club where the AfD were holding their victory party after news of the election result spread

He said the reason why the party had won such a large part of the votes was due to the way they 'uncompromisingly addressed' the aftermath of the migrant crisis.

'One million people, foreigners, being brought into this country are taking away a piece of this country and we as AfD don't want that,' Mr Gauland was quotes as saying by the BBC.

'We say, I don't want to lose Germany to an invasion of foreigners from a different culture. Very simple.'

The news that the AfD had become the third largest party in parliament led to protests across Germany on Sunday evening.

Activists chanting anti-Nazi slogans and waving banners surrounded the Berlin nightclub being used by the AfD to celebrate their win on Sunday night.

More marchers were pictured in Frankfurt, holding a banner which read 'Frankfurt hates the AfD'.

And their success is the first time in 60 years that the far-Right has garnered enough votes to secure such a show of strength in the Bundestag. The Greens said the shock result meant that the Nazis were in parliament again.

One report said that in parts of the former East Germany, the AfD had polled 45 per cent of the vote.

The AfD's strong showing could see them taking as many as 90 seats.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took 33 per cent of the vote, down 8.5 points from the last election, and its former coalition partners the Social Democratic Party (SPD) only nabbed 20 per cent - meaning both parties saw their worst results since since 1949.

Mrs Merkel will now likely have to forge a messy three-way arrangement with the liberal FDP and Greens.

However, Merkel's party is still the biggest parliamentary bloc and Europe's most powerful leader said her conservatives would set about building the next government, adding she was sure a coalition would be agreed by Christmas.

'There cannot be a coalition government built against us,' she said.

The anti-immigration party had waged a virulent campaign against Mrs Merkel's decision to let in some one million people by operating an 'open doors' policy to refugees during and after the 2015 migrant crisis.

Protesters took to the streets of Berlin angry that the far-right AfD won 13.5 per cent support during Germany's election, meaning they will get seats in parliament for the first time (pictured, a banner that reads 'Smash the AfD')

While Mrs Merkel's party came out of the election the largest, she did worse than most polls had projected as the far right gained a huge amount of support, causing alarm and protests across the country

Election hangover: German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting of her Christian Democratic Union party, CDU, at their headquarters in Berlin on Monday morning

Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term as her party emerged as the largest, but now faces controlling a country that is deeply divided over her response to the refugee crisis

Merkel acknowledged the rise of the AfD as demonstrators took to the streets, saying she would try to win votes back by focusing on security and prosperity for Germans

Two activists carried a banner which reads: 'Germany is not full. Your identity crisis is nationalism. Your homeland is racism'

Mrs Merkel's coalition partner, the SPD, returned its smallest share of support post-war at 20 per cent, and announced it will not be rejoining Mrs Merkel in government.

Martin Schulz, leader of the SPD, said his party will go into opposition following the result, leaving Mrs Merkel to search elsewhere for support.

Having vowed not to work with the AfD, Mrs Merkel now faces the prospect of cobbling together a tricky three-way agreement involving the FDP and Greens.

Mr Schulz told despondent supporters: 'Today is a difficult and bitter day for social democracy in Germany.

'Particularly pressing for us tonight is the strength of the AfD party. For the first time, with them, there will be a far-right party in the German Bundestag.

'The acceptance of one million migrants it was almost guaranteed to divide our country and it has divided us too much.'

Mrs Merkel acknowledged as much in her own speech to party faithful, acknowledging that the last four years had been 'extremely challenging'.

She spoke of wanting to regain votes lost to the AfD and said 'prosperity and security' will be at the centre of her thinking once a new government is formed.

'We need to work for a just and free country, she said 'that of course means we need to bring together all of the European Union counties.

'That means we need to fight against the causes of migration and we need to find legal ways to fight against illegal migration.'

The AfD vowed to 'reclaim our country and our people' following the Sunday election result as protesters took to the streets

Marchers also gathered in Frankfurt waving a banner which reads 'Frankfurt hates the AfD'

Protesters with their middle fingers raised, in a sign of defiance against the AfP, march in Berlin on Sunday night

A young protester give a middle finger to the camera as she marches against the rise of the AfD in Germany

An anti-Merkel protester with a sign that reads 'not my mother', a reference to the Chancellor's nickname of Mutti Merkel

Commentators called the AfD's strong performance a 'watershed moment' in the history of the German republic. The top-selling Bild daily spoke of a 'political earthquake'.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, has warned that 'for the first time since the end of the second World War, real Nazis will sit in the German parliament'.

The AfD will be a pariah in parliament as all mainstream parties have ruled out working with it, but the populists could still be vocally disruptive from the opposition benches.

Thorsten Benner, head of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, said the AfD's rise shows that 'our population is no more virtuous than the French population,' and that 'even Le Pen pales in comparison'.

The presence of the AfD 'will very much change the tone of debate in parliament,' Benner warned.

The election has been closely watched by Brussels, and there is now fear that the result may have an effect on EU policies.

One casualty of Merkel's weakness may be a rapid move to deepen integration of the euro zone along lines that new French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to outline in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Tuesday.

Macron ran for the French presidency on a pledge to 'relaunch' Europe, in tandem with Germany, after years of economic and financial crisis and the new shock dealt by Britain's vote last year to leave the bloc.

Macron has called for a finance minister and budget for the single currency bloc, ideas that Merkel has tentatively supported even though scepticism in her own party runs high.

Those plans, as with reform proposals floated this month by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, may run into increased scepticism in Berlin, where many are wary of what they see as more demands for German bailouts of states like Greece.

Resistance may come both from Merkel's Christian Democrats, spooked by the surge on their right flank, where Alternative for Germany (AfD) entered parliament as the third biggest party, and from the Free Democrats (FDP), whose leader Christian Lindner ruled out Germany contributing to a shared euro zone budget.

The liberal leader in the European Parliament, committed federalist and former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, said he hoped for a 'pro-European' coalition to push EU integration.

The FDP leader in the EU legislature, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, said it was 'an open-minded, pro-European party'.

The European Greens' German co-chair Reinhard Butikofer said his party wanted to strengthen the European Union, 'making use of the window of opportunity that exists ... between Paris, Brussels and Berlin'. He was referring to a keynote speech by Juncker 10 days ago in which the EU chief executive said anti-EU populists were in retreat and called for deeper EU integration.

But Guntram Wolff, the German director of the Brussels think-tank Bruegel, questioned Juncker's thinking. He forecast a rightward shift in Germany due to the AfD and resistance from the FDP that would stymie Macron and Juncker's grand visions.

'Populism definitely not dead,' Wolff tweeted. 'Juncker speech completely miscalculated the situation.'

Merkel's CDU party won the largest share of votes at the German election, with exit polls reporting 32.5 per cent support

Mrs Merkel's first task will be to find a new coalition partner after the SPD, her former partner, announced it would go into opposition after polling just 20 per cent

Alexander Gauland (left) of the AfD vowed to 'go after Merkel' while Alice Weidel said the party will push for a committee to investigate 'legal breaches' by Mrs Merkel's government

Marine Le Pen was quick to congratulate the AfD on their historic poll result, saying it was 'a new symbol of the revival of the European peoples'

Meanwhile Alexander Gauland, a top candidate of the AfD, vowed to 'go after Merkel' saying his aim is to 'reclaim our country and our people.'

Who are the AfD? Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) was founded in 2013 as a eurosceptic party. It drew minimal support until Germany's refugee crisis, when it broadened its base with anti-Islamist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. In recent times it has gone further, with leader Alexander Gauland claiming Germany had much to be proud of during the Second World War and that the word 'volk' – people – should be 'rescued' from its Nazi connotations. In May 2016 it adopted an explicitly anti-Islam policy, saying that 'Islam does not belong to Germany'. It would ban the burka and the Muslim call to prayer, and wants to stop foreign funding of mosques in Germany. All imams should go through a state vetting procedure, it says. AfD chairman Frauke Petry once advocated border guards opening fire on unarmed refugees to protect Germany's frontiers. Last year one of its founders announced plans to forge links with the far-Right National Front in France. The party has capitalised on middle-class disenchantment with bailing out failing eurozone states such as Greece with taxpayer money. It harked back to the rhetoric of the Nazis with 'hearth and home' propaganda about paying for ordinary German families instead of foreigners. It also stands against same-sex marriage and same-sex couples adopting children, and has a platform of climate change denial. It also wants to bring in conscription into the army for all men when they reach 18 Advertisement

Alice Weide, another of the AfD's most prominent candidates, vowed that her part is 'here to stay' during a victory speech on Sunday night.

She told supporters that the party's first move will be to establish a committee to look into 'legal breaches' by Mrs Merkel's government.

Ms Weide also vowed to focus on content and political positions, and vowed to live up to the trust that voters have placed in the party.

Mrs Merkel said she had hoped for a 'better result' and pledged to listen to the 'concerns and anxieties' of AfD voters in order to win them back.

The result is also a blow for Theresa May, who had been banking on an emboldened Mrs Merkel helping her reach a good deal on Brexit.

Now it appears Mrs Merkel could be bogged down in coalition talks for weeks or even months – meaning she will have little time to bolster her British counterpart.

A worst-case scenario is that Mrs Merkel may now have to take an even harder line against the UK.

The German election is just the latest shock result to stun political observers, following last year's vote for Brexit, the election of President Trump and Mrs May's general election disaster in June.

Beatrix van Storch, one of the AfD's leaders, told the BBC the result was 'a huge success ... it will change the political system in Germany, and it will give back a voice to the opposition'. She added: 'We will start debates on migration, we will start debates on Islam, we will start debates on ever closer [European] union.'

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was quick to congratulate the AfD after they made massive gains in the election.

Le Pen, who lost France's presidential election to Emmanuel Macron earlier this year, wrote on Twitter: 'Bravo to our allies from AfD for this historic score! It's a new symbol of the awakening of the peoples of Europe.'

Elswhere Jewish groups from around the world reacted to the news of the AfP's strong showing with dismay and concern.

German Central Council of Jews President Josef Schuster says the party, known by its German initials AfD, 'tolerates far-right thoughts and agitates against minorities.'

He said he expects Germany's other parties will 'reveal the true face of the AfD and unmask their empty, populist promises.'

The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, congratulated Chancellor Angela Merkel on securing a fourth term, calling her a 'true friend of Israel and the Jewish people.'

'It is abhorrent that the AfD party, a disgraceful reactionary movement which recalls the worst of Germany's past and should be outlawed, now has the ability within the German parliament to promote its vile platform,' Lauder said.

Mrs Merkel's CDU and the SPD, the two most established political parties in Germany, both took a hammering at the polls compared to the last election in 2013, as the public looked to fringe parties to provide answers

Mrs Merkel shakes hands with Martin Schulz, leader of the SPD party which served as her junior coalition partner in the last parliament, but will now leave and go into opposition

Supporters of the AfD cheer after receiving the news that their party will enter the German parliament for the first time

Martin Schulz, leader of the SPD, told supporters that 'the acceptance of one million migrants it was almost guaranteed to divide our country and it has divided us too much'

Support for Mrs Merkel's party fell by almost 9 per cent, and was lower than the 34 to 37 per cent that late polls had suggested she would get as she was punished over migration

The election was fought on the tense backdrop of surging support for far left and far right parties across Europe.

The German election: How does it work? On Sunday, 61million Germans voted to decide the future of their country using a mixture of first-past-the-post voting, as we have in this country, and proportional representation. Each voter gets two votes: The first cast for a local candidate, and the second cast for a national party. The German parliament will then be made up of a mixture of victorious local candidates, and other candidates selected by the party on a list system. The listed seats are allocated based on the proportion of the vote the party received - if they received 25 per cent of the vote, they must end up with 25 per cent of the seats. Because it is possible for a party to win more seats through local candidates than they are strictly entitled to, the parliament can expand to balance this advantage out. Officially the Bundestag has 598 seats, but can grow as large as 800 and currently has 631 members. Advertisement

Germany in particular is coping with the arrival of more than 1 million refugees and other new migrants, with tension with Russia since Moscow's incursions into Ukraine, and with doubt about Europe's future since Britain voted to quit the EU.

After shock election results last year, from the Brexit vote to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, leaders of Europe's establishment have looked to Merkel to rally the liberal Western order.

But after acting as an anchor of stability in Europe and beyond, she now faces an unstable situation at home as she must now form a coalition, an arduous process that could take months.

Immediately after the release of exit polls, the deputy party leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in a 'grand coalition' with Merkel's conservatives for the last four years, said her party would now go into opposition.

'For us, the grand coalition ends today,' Manuela Schwesig told ZDF broadcaster. 'For us it's clear that we'll go into opposition as demanded by the voter.'

Without the SPD, Merkel's only straightforward path to a majority in parliament would be a three-way tie-up with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, known as a 'Jamaica' coalition because the black, yellow and green colours of the three parties match the Jamaican flag.

Such an arrangement is untested at the national level in Germany and widely seen as inherently unstable. Both the FDP and the Greens have played down the prospect of a three-way coalition, but neither won enough seats on Sunday to give Merkel a majority on its own.

Whatever the make-up of her coalition, Merkel, 63, faces four years of government in a fragmented parliament after the return of the FDP - unrepresented at national level for the last four years - and the arrival of the AfD.

Founded in 2013 by an anti-euro group of academics, the AfD has surged as an anti-immigrant group in the wake of Merkel's 2015 decision to leave German borders open to over 1 million migrants, most of them fleeing war in the Middle East.

The party's entry into the national parliament heralds the beginning of a new era in German politics that will see more robust debate and a departure from the steady, consensus-based approach that has marked the post-war period.

The other parties elected to the Bundestag all refuse to work with the AfD, which says it will press for Merkel to be 'severely punished' for opening the door to refugees and migrants.

After the AfD hurt her conservatives in regional elections last year, Merkel, a pastor's daughter who grew up in Communist East Germany, wondered if she should run for re-election.

But with the migrant issue under control this year, she threw herself into a punishing campaign schedule.

Despite losing support, Merkel, Europe's longest serving leader, will join the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany's rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.

She has campaigned on her record as chancellor for 12 years, emphasizing the country's record-low unemployment, strong economic growth, balanced budget and growing international importance.

That's helped keep her conservative bloc well atop the polls ahead of Sunday's election over the center-left Social Democrats of challenger Martin Schulz.