Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigration, conservative party, won a landslide victory in a regional election on Sunday. 

AfD candidate for governor of Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, told public broadcaster ARD that voters sent message that "things cannot carry on like this." 

The growing popularity of the party is putting pressure on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a center-right Christian Democrat who came to power promising to weaken the AfD, the Associated Press reported. 

Siegmund called Merz "a very good campaigner for us." 

Siegmund's party was hoping for an absolute majority in the state legislature, which would have allowed it to govern alone and overcome the resistance of mainstream parties' refusal to work with the AfD. Instead the party fell short by three seats, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member parliament.